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Feed regularly— ravenous horses three times a day, the delicate 

 four times. Give each as much good sweet old oats as he will eat, 

 and when doing strong work a large handful of crushed two-year-old 

 beans in each feed. A mash of bran, potatoes, or turnips should be 

 given twice a week to keep their bowels right ; very little hay, and 

 that of the best. Don't give more at a feed than the horse will eat 

 and finish with a relish. Try to make each horse, when in hard work, 

 eat on an average at least 14lbs. of oats a day. Give every day one or 

 two raw carrots whole, not chopped. 



Salt, to assist digestion, is as requisite to animals as it is to mankind, 

 hence they should be supplied with it ; therefore keep alwaj^s a piece 

 of rock-salt in the manger for your horse to lick. 



I think well-saved hay of the previous summer may be given after 

 Christmas, as old dried-up stufif has no nourishment in it. Oats should 

 always be from six to eighteen months old, and should be quite sweet. 

 The former season's oats may be given in April. If you have to buy 

 from dealers, lay in your supply about June or July, before the new 

 corn comes to market, or you run the risk of getting the new mixed 

 with the old. Be sure it is fresh threshed, and not kiln-dried, and let 

 it be turned well from one end of the loft to the other, at least once 

 a week, and always have plenty of fresh air about it. It should not be 

 heaped more than six inches deep, or it will get musty. But the best 

 plan if you do not grow it yourself is to buy the oats from the farmer, 

 and let him send it to you fresh threshed from the stack as you 

 want it. 



I seldom see hay what I call properly saved — that is, before it has 

 lost all its greenness, and ivhile the sap is in it. Farmers are fearful 

 of its " heating " after having been ricked, and, therefore, they leave 

 it until it has got quite dried up before bringing it to the haggard ; 

 whereas, if proper care and trouble were taken to have the meadows cut 

 only in hot weather, and then save the hay quickly, our horses would 

 have it nice and sweet even when it would be two years old. 



Let a horse have water always in his stable to drink when he likes. 

 Nothing is so unnatural, and consequently bad, as to let him get 

 ravenously thirsty, and then suddenly charge his stomach to excess. 

 Let him take what he desires before leaving the stable w^hen going 

 to hunt. This will be perhaps nine or ten o'clock, and as he will not 

 have a run much before twelve, or maybe one or two o'clock, it will 

 be all absorbed long before then. Let him take a few "go downs" of 

 water during the day, or during a long run, just to refresh him. Let 

 him stale as often as he likes while out, and if he does not do so bring 

 him under cover and spread straw under him, or otherwise induce him, 

 for many horses will not stale out of doors. 



When the day's hunting is over, if you have a long ride home, go 

 to a farmhouse and make your horse a good big drink of flour or ground 

 oatmeal and water. If he is very beat slip half a glass of whisky into it 

 while he is drinking. If you put it in beforehand and he smells it he 



