Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1882 — Feeding Horses. [ARTICLE]

Feeding Horses.

The horse has the smallest stomach in proportion to his size of any animal. Fifteen or sixteen quarts is its utmost capacity. This space is completely filled byfour quarts of oats with the saliva, that .goes into the stomach with it Horses are generally overfed, and not fed often enough. For a horse with moderate work, six or eight quarts of bruised oats and eight or ten pounds of fine hay a day is sufficient. This should be fed in at least three meals, and is better if fed in four. A horse’s digestion is very rapid, and therefore he gets hungry sooner than a man. When he is hungry he is ineffective, and wears out very rapidly. Water fills the stomach, lowers the temperature, and dilutes the gastric juice, therefore a horse should not drink immediately before eating. Neither should he be watered immediately after eating, because he will drink too much, and force some of the contents of the stomach into the large intestine, which will cause scouring. Scouring is also caused by too rapid eating, which can be prevented by putting half a dozen pebbles, half the size of the fist, into the manger with the oats. Give only a moderate drink of water to a horse. A large drink of cold water before being driven will have a very quieting effect upon a nervous horse. A race horse always runs on an empty stomach. Digestion progresses moderately during exercise, if the exercise is not so violent as to exhaust the powers of the horse. I consider bruised oats worth twenty per cent, more than whole. They are more compactly digested. Prefer oats to any other grain for horses. Cracked corn is very good under some circumstances, but I wouldn’t use meal or shorts. The disease called big head is caused by feeding corn. When a horse comes in hot, I would give a moderate feed immediately. If the horse is too tired to eat take his feed away. A heated body is a reason against watering, and for feeding, for the system is then just in the condition to begin digestion. A horse will not founder if fed moderately when hot. I prefer dry feed unless a horse has some disease of the throat or lungs. Do not consider it worth while to cut hay. I always feed hay from the floor, then the horses do not get particles in their eyes.