HOW TO FEED A HOBSBL 127 



ow grass, or maize, — ^long stalks and leaves, sown broad- 

 cast and cut joung, will cool the blood, give a kinllj al« 

 terative to the system, keep the bowels moderately open, 

 and please the appetite of the animal. They should not, 

 however, be given too freely, when the horse is at hard 

 work, as they wil], perhaps, produce laxity and scouring. 

 It is a good plan to give a good mash of stewed bran and 

 oats once a week. Saturday evening — ^if Sunday be, as it 

 often is, and always, except in cases of emergency, should 

 be, a day of rest — is often and appropriately set apart for 

 this purpose. After an unusually hard day's work, such 

 a mash is always both useful and grateful to the beast ; and 

 where there is much fatigue and exhaustion, a quart of ale 

 may be added to the mash with advantage. Nitre and 

 drugs of all kinds should be studiously avoided, and never 

 wsed except when prescribed as medicine. New corn should 

 never be used as horse feed. It is emphatically danger- 

 ous ; is heating, apt to swell and produce obstruction of the 

 bowels, and to cause colic and even acute inflammation. 

 Old corn may be given, but sparingly and cautiously, and 

 never in a greater ratio than two quarts where you would 

 give three of oats. Horses should never be fed within ai^ 

 hour before being put to work, and then should be worked 

 slowly until the bowels are fully evacuated ; nor within 

 two hours, if it can be avoided, should they have to per- 

 form sharp work. More horses have their winds broken 

 by being worked quick and hard, with their bellies dis- 

 tended with hay, grain and water, than from all other 

 causes combined; and more are foundered from being 

 over-fed while hot, exhausted, and in a state of quasi col- 

 lapse ; and are exposed to colic and acute inflammation 

 of tne bowels, from being freely watered and subjected to 

 drafts of cold air, showers of rain, or being injudiciously 

 bathed or washed, after sharp work, when their stomachs 



