PRACTICAL HORSE FEEDING 343 



else/ him as to keep the horse up to the very highest pitch 

 of strength and vigor. Many persons, among them some 

 who should know better, endeavor to have the stallion 

 in fine show condition at the time the breeding season 

 opens. The horse is heavily fed, closely blanketed, and 

 denied sufficient exercise, he becomes loaded with fat, his 

 muscles become soft and flabby, and although he may 

 seem in the pink of condition, he is not nearly so well 

 fitted for service in the stud as he would have been had 

 he received plain food and an abundance of exercise each 

 day. To insure exercise the stallion should be worked 

 moderately when convenient. 



During the breeding season the grain ration should con- 

 sist mainly of good sound oats, as nothing is better; but 

 this should be varied from time to time by adding corn, 

 barley, wheat, and the like. Wheat bran is a valuable 

 adjunct to the ration, and should never be dispensed with. 

 It is not only rich in protein, an especially important 

 element of nutrition for the stallion, but is the cheapest, 

 safest and best of all regulators of the bowels. The 

 roughage should consist of sweet, clean hay, timothy or 

 timothy and clover mixed. A few carrots occasionally 

 is a very valuable addition to the ration of breeding 

 animals. 



Feeding mules. — Mules should be fed similar to horses. 

 There is a prevailing notion that mules eat less than 

 horses under similar conditions. Such is not the case, al- 

 though they are less likely to overfeed and gorge them- 

 selves than horses, and will make use of coarse foods that 

 horses will not eat unless forced to do so by neglect. 

 Mules are sometimes preferred by large business firms, 

 not that they consume less food for a given amount of 

 work than do horses, but that their management, both 

 feeding and working, can be trusted to less skilled hands 

 and with better results than can be obtained with horses. 

 In all important essentials, mules are very similar to 



