The Horse Author:William Cook Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER I. FEEDING HORSES. General Feeding—Nag Horses—Horses on a Farm—Waggon and Carmen's Horses—Judgment: when and how to use it, according to circumstan... more »ces—Various systems of Feeding—Green Stuff—Dry Fodder—Preparation of Food. is a subject which is very 9 important, and yet many people think anyone can feed a horse. Others again imagine a horse can be fed anyhow and upon anything, so long as it gets its food. Both these ideas are very wrong. Horses which have to work should be fed properly and on good food. It must be understood that whether they are thorough-bred carriage horses, hunters, or cart horses, it is the food which gives strength to the animals. The breed no doubt has a good deal to do with the spirit and pluck of a horse. At the same time no matter what breed the horse is, even if he is a thorough-bred, he can do but very little work unless kept up well with a good supply of nourishing food. The way in which a horse is fed, and what it is fed upon, is much more important than most people think. Perhaps I may seem a little too particular on this point. I have never yet had a person in my employ that pleased me in feeding my horses, though I must not complain, as they usually look very well. When I used to feed them myself, I adopted rather a different plan of feeding them to many. Most people have their own way or idea of feeding horses. If they have been accustomed to a certain way it is very difficult to persuade them out of it, as it was the way their forefathers managed before them. They say there is nothing new under the sun. There may be a good deal in that. Feeding horses properly is not new to many people. My father, thirty-four years ago, gave me a lesson on feeding horses, which I have never forgotten. I began to put into practice what ...« less