Hay—good hay—is short, fine, agreeable to smell and taste, hard and crisp, and is generally mixed with clover, and the best hay is one year old—is the basis of all feeding. An average allowance is about twelve pounds a day, with the larger quantity given at night. A little hay also at noon helps digestion. If a horse is wanted for fast work, eight pounds of hay is enough. A horse does his work more comfortably to himself if his stomach is somewhat empty rather than distended with hay. The feeding of the hay should be regulated so that the animal is not given his hay just before going to work, but at the meal after he comes in. Many coachmen are great believers in chopped hay or chaff. There is not much saving in feeding hay in this way—none at all if it is bought already in the form of chaff—although a little chaff mixed with the other food requires more time in mastication and hence is better for digestion. Hay should be fed from the bottom of the stall.
Oats—good oats are heavy, thin-skinned, clean, hard and sweet, and without musty smell. Good oats will weigh from 42 to 45 pounds to the bushel; fair oats, 38 to 40 pounds. Horses in average work should have from eight to ten quarts of oats a day. Where the work of the horses is severe, they should have as much as they want. The cavalry allowance is ten quarts a day, which is a good medium allowance. The rations of oats should be increased or decreased according to the amount of work the horse is doing. Oats may be boiled or steamed, may be flavored with ginger or a little "black jack" molasses, or even mixed with a few slices of apples for nervous or bad feeders. If a horse gobbles his feed, it is well to sprinkle his oats with dry bran, or to mix them with chaff.
Barley, beans, peas, are not much used in private stables, though beans for a horse in hard work or for fattening are valuable. A quart of crushed beans mixed with the other food at night is recommended. They should be at least a year old, weigh from 60 to 64 pounds to the bushel, and be hard, plump, and sweet.
Corn is used largely in the West for horses, but seldom in the East, in private stables. It is a strong, fattening food, and, served to the horses on the ear, is good for teeth and gums, and makes them eat slowly. It should not be fed in quantity, but as a change, or a cob or two at a time with other food.
Bran—should be dry, sweet-tasting, free from mould—is not exactly an article of food. It may be fed with other feed, but is usually given once or twice a week in the form of a mash, preferably the night before a day of light work or no work at all.
Linseed is an aperient, like bran, and is used to moisten food that is too constipating, and is recommended strongly by some authorities in the form of a mash mixed with bran or as a jelly in the case of horses out of condition and needing a palatable stimulant. It is also conducive to glossiness of coat and healthiness of skin, but unless used sparingly affects the wind.
Apples, boiled potatoes, carrots, black molasses, clover, or other fresh forage may all be used as a change of diet. This last should be given sparingly at first, for it is often the cause of serious trouble when given in quantity all at once.
Carrots are altogether the best substitute for fresh grass. They can be given without harm, occasionally, the year round, either alone or mixed with other food—always cut up lengthwise, otherwise the horse may choke on them.
Remember, always, the smallness of the horse's stomach in feeding him. When left to himself, he will graze all day long, eating, however, but little at a time. When he comes in tired, give him a little food, a mash or gruel, or, if he is to have a hard day, carry a little oatmeal and a bottle of Bass for his luncheon. If you are caught far from home with a tired horse, almost any house can furnish oatmeal, warm water, and, if procurable, a small amount of stimulant added, and this, with a good rubbing down, will make another horse of your tired beast.
Though the stomach of the horse is small, his water capacity is large. The water he drinks does not remain in the stomach, but passes directly through it, and the small intestines to the cæcum (one of the large intestines). Except where a horse is ill, overheated, or overtired, he may be allowed to drink as much as he will. Horses should always, too, be watered before they are fed, for reasons obvious from what has been said of the horse's stomach. Horses should be watered the last thing at night, say 10 p.m. No horse should be tortured by being kept without water from 7 p.m. till 6 a.m. This is cruelty and soon tells on the horse to his great and very perceptible disadvantage. Even horses coming in from work in warm weather may have a small quantity, but only a small quantity, of water while they are being cooled out and rubbed down. No overheated, tired horse should be allowed to fill himself up with cold water; neither, on the other hand, should he be kept in a raging thirst indefinitely.