In the general commotion excited by violent exertion, the stomach can hardly be in a favorable condition for performing its duty.

The blood circulates too rapidly to permit the formation of gastric juice, or its combination with the food; and the blood and the nervous influence are so exclusively concentrated and expended upon the muscular system, that none can be spared for carrying on the digestive process.

The Effects of Fast Work on a Full Stomach are well enough known among experienced horsemen. The horse becomes sick, dull, breathless. He is unwilling, or unfit to proceed at his usual pace; and if urged onward, he quickly shows all the systems, of over-marking, to which I allude among the accidents of w©rk. The effects are not always the same. Sometimes the horse is simply over-marked, distressed by work that should not produce any distress. Some take colic, some are foundered, some broken-winded. The most frequent result is over-marking in combination with colic. Perhaps the colic, that is, the fermentation of the food, begins before the horse is distressed; but whether or not, his distress is always much aggravated by the colic.

These effects are not entirely produced by indigestion. The difficulty of breathing may be ascribed to mere fulness of the stomach. Pressing upon the diaphragm, and encroach-ing upon the lungs, it prevents a full inspiration; and its weight, though, not, perhaps, exceeding eight or nine pounds, must have considerable influence upon a horse that has to run at full speed, and even upon one who has to go far, though not so fast.

Some horses commence purging on the road, if fed directly before starting They seem to get rid of the food entirely or partly: for these, which are generally light-bellied horses, do not suffer so much, or so often, from any of the evils connected with a full stomach. The purgation, however, often continues too long, and is rapidly followed by great exhaustion. They should be kept short of water on working days, and they should have a large allowance of beans.

All work, then, which materially hurries the breathing ought to be performed with an empty stomach, or at leas without a full stomach. Coaching-horses are usually fed from one to two hours before starting, and hay is withheld after the grain is eaten. Hunters are fed early in the morning; and racers receive no food on running days till their work be over. Abstinence, however, must not be carried so far as to induce exhaustion before the work commences.

After Fast Work is concluded, it is a little while ere the stomach is in a condition to digest the food. Until thirst has been allayed, and the system calmed, there is seldom any appetite. If the horse have fasted long, or be tempted by ac article of which he is very fond, he may be induced to eat. But it is not right to let him; a little does him no good, and a full feed does him harm. The stomach partaking of the general excitement, is not prepared to receive the food. Fermentation takes place, and the horse's life is endangered or the food lies in the stomach unchanged, and produce founder.

Food, then, is not to be given after work till the horse be cool, his breathing tranquil, and his pulse reduced to its natural standard. By the time he is dressed and watered, he is generally ready for feeding.