The management and treatment of the horse in the stable, field, and ...

30 The Management and Treatment of the Horse,
horses at any time and in any quantity, knowing or
caring little whether they injure the horse or not. The
old proverb says, " Full feed, then rest, often feed does
best," and in this case it is strictly true. It would seem
that nature had wisely foreseen that the horse was destined
to become the servant of man, and to render it more
valuable and fitted to the labour that would be required
of it, it became necessary to diminish the inconvenience
and danger which would necessarily accompany a large
stomach, and so ordained that the animal should have
one proportioned to the position it was destined to fill in
creation. The great bulk of its frame requires a large
amount of food to be consumed to afford nutriment, yet
the stomach is wisely formed small to prevent pressure
as much as possible, and in addition it has the power to
rapidly decompose the food, which speedily descends to
a portion ot the intestines remote from the diaphragm,
where the pressure of food cannot inconvenience it.
Indeed, the whole of its food is very quickly digested,
and very soon passed through, otherwise it could not be
sustained in strength. Considering the small amount
ot nutriment contained in the common food of the horse,
hence the force oi the proverb, and the stupidity of those
orooms who neglect to feed the horse often and at regular
intervals. In this we also see the wise and far-seeing
handiwork oi the Creator, for the horse, unlike the ox,
has no gaui-bladder, to let at intervals a quantity of bile
into the stomach to aid its digestion, but the bile is
carried through the liver direct to the duodenum or first
o-ut, so that it is always supplied with the necessary bile
to promote a rapid digestion. No horse ought to be fed