Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1878 — Mints on Horse Keeping. [ARTICLE]

Mints on Horse Keeping.

The wide stall is a luxury, and ought to be six or even ten feet wide if room can be spared. Loose boxes are important for horses of great value ; in such stalls they can get perfect repose by changing theii position, recover from the fatigue of a hard day’s drive, and be ready for their task the next day. The food best adapted to the horse is oats and hay of the best quality, occasionally varied with a bran mash, with turnips or carrots as an alterative. The growth and development of bene and muscle depend greatly upon the food they eat. It is important to select such as contains all the elements needed to form the bone and muscle of the horse. It is self-evident that the nutritive matter supplied by the food must be equal to the exhaustion, or natural waste of the body, to keep up condition. Prof. Playfair has made some interesting and instructive experiments upon the nutritious matter contained in different kinds of food. He has demonstrated by analysis “that in 100 pounds of oats, eleven pounds represent the quantity of gluten wherewith flesh is formed, and that an equal weight of hay affords eight pounds of similar substance. Bath hay and oats contain about 68 per centum of unazotized matter, identical with fat, of which it must be observed that a vast portion passed off from the animal without being assimilated. By this calculation it appears that if a horse comsumes daily four feeds of oats and ten pounds of hay, the nutriment which he derives will be equivalent to about one pound eleven ounces of muscle, and thirteen and one-half pounds of superfluous matter, which, exclusive of water, nearly approximates the exhaustion of the system, by perspiration and the various evacuations.” The horse that is about to be driven on a journey needs hardening by exercise—preparing by sweating out tUe body to purify and increase the circulation of the blood, and also by hand-rubbing the legs to make them firm and elastic—a preparation in some degree corresponding with that attained by a horse that is daily driven on the road for ordinary work. For one week previous to the start they need daily exercise, commencing with eight or ten miles, and gradually increasing to twenty per day. This exercise, with appropriate food, will harden iheir muscles, strengthen their limbs and prepare them to perform their tasks without giving out on the road, materially declining in flesh, or seriously exhausting their physical powers. If we perform long drives, with horses accustomed to short work only, the medium transition from indolence to great exertion will relax their muscles, weaken their joints, depress their spirits and break down their constitution. The leading cause of so many valuable horses being spoiled by long drives is from being short of work. They are not prepared for such severe exertions. Condition will prepare them to perform their work cheerfully, last eut with sound limbs, and preserve their constitutional vigor for future usefulness. —National Live Stock Journal.