THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 25 



pressed beyond that would sweat profusely. Hav- 

 ing been recently imported from Canada, it was pre- 

 dicted by all the horsemen about that she would have 

 ' the distemper ' as a matter of course. In order to 

 more effectually guard against this, I fed her but 

 once a day for a couple of weeks, giving her from ten 

 to twenty miles' jogging every day, Sundays included, - 

 thus reducing the fat, and increasing the flesh I Her 

 one meal consisted of a very generous feed of hay, 

 and four quarts of oats at night, after being thor- 

 oughly rested from work. After this, and with a 

 considerable increase of work (averaging, all told, 150 

 miles per week), I gave her a light feed of hay and 

 two quarts of oats in the morning. In the course of 

 six months her weight, which had at first fallen off 

 quite rapidly, was but slightly less than when I took 

 her ; but it was made up of a different substance al- 

 together. I had exchanged IOO pounds of fat for 75 

 pounds of flesh ; or, in other words, I had relieved 

 her of that much disease (effectually preventing the 

 predicted outbreak), and had built up in its place a 

 large amount of muscle, at the same time improving- 

 the quality of her entire muscular system. 



" Speaking in a general way, a horse is an engine 

 made up of muscles which increase in size and qual- 

 ity by increased use (always supposing a sufficient 

 diet), and diminish in size, as well as in power, if the 

 work is less or lighter. Consequently, if the horse 

 is fed for health {i. e., in proportion to his labor), 

 his weight will diminish with lessened, and increase 

 with added, work. In feeding in the morning I 



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