THEIR FEED AND THEIR FEET. 



17 



constantly whenever he can work up an appetite, or, 

 as in some cases, gormandizing as if he was an ani- 

 mated hay-cutter and nothing else. The man puts 

 him into his stable, feeds him little and regularly — 

 hay morning and night, and in amount only what he 

 will eat up clean with a sharp appetite ; or, if of the 

 insatiable-appetite type, limiting him to a rational 

 quantity, giving him light feed three times a day 

 (grain only at noon), but giving him regular exercise 

 or work every day. The result of this treatment is a 

 complete transformation, which I need not describe 

 in detail ; bulr, from a hide-bound, lazy, and almost 

 useless piece of horse-flesh, he produces a tough, hard, 

 clean roadster of great value. 



Sometimes this same transformation is secured with- 

 out any-great degree of intelligence on the part of the 

 owner, but is rather a streak of good luck. Buying 

 an overfed and underworked dyspeptic horse, because 

 he is " cheap," feeding him well, but giving him an 

 abundance of work, because he has the work for him 

 to do, the necessary conditions are established, and 

 the horse begins to thrive and acquire condition, to 

 the entire surprise of his owner perhaps. 



This could never have been accomplished upon any 

 system of feeding alone ; muscles do not grow except 

 as they are used ; nor is it possible to fatten some 

 horses so as to give them even the semblance of condi- 

 tion, which so often deceives the novice, who, buying 

 a sleek, handsome horse, finds, upon putting him to 

 use, that his fat melts off and out of the degenerated 

 carcass; and he, not knowing the cause, does not 



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