Hay for horses should invariably be the best quality; many different sorts and conditions being more or less detrimental to the digestion and wind. Good old upland meadow hay is the best, as being the hardest, sweetest, and most hearty. It should be of a pale brown colour, and smell sweet and clean. Hay of a green colour is generally grown on low, marshy ground, and is often dusty; while the dark brown indicates that the stack has been very hot from having been put together in too green a state before it was properly made. Both are detrimental to the horse, and therefore to be avoided.

The price of hay depends upon the quality, and the abundance or shortness of the crop. It varies from 4l. to 5l. 10s., according to the season.

Clover hay is but seldom used in private stables as being too coarse, except occasionally to cut up and mix with the chaff. When of fine quality, and well cut, it is remarkably sweet, and gives a flavour to the chaff that will often tempt a delicate horse to feed.

Oats are the staple food for horses when in work, and are of various kinds, English and foreign. The former are generally preferred, but some of the foreign oats are very good feed. Oats should be sweet, free from dirt and stones, and weigh nearly, if not quite, forty pounds per bushel. The lighter oats are generally deficient in kernel, while some of the heavier kinds, by thick coarse husks, make up the weight, which must be taken into consideration by the purchaser in making his selection.

The price will vary from 10s. to 30s. per quarter; good oats for general feeding may be had for 25s. per quarter. The value of the oat depends more upon the thinness of the husk and the amount of meal contained in the kernel, than upon the size and weight, which is often the result of thick, coarse husks.

No oats should be used until they have been cut at least six months; and if twelve or eighteen months they are so much the better. New oats, and oats that have been heated in the barn or stack, are not only very prejudicial to the horse, but it is impossible to get him into good condition on them, as being too soft and relaxing.

Some horses bolt their corn nearly whole, which consequently does not do them so much good as it otherwise would. A double-handful of chaff in each feed will, to a certain extent remedy this, but crushing or bruising the oats in a mill is a far better remedy; in fact, I quite believe that to bruise all the corn for horses would be found the most economical plan, as they would derive greater benefit from it by more easy and complete digestion, a smaller quantity would go as far, and the improved power and condition of the horse amply repay the labour and cost of bruising.

By crushing or bruising I do not mean grinding to a powder, but merely crushing the husks and kernel.

Beans are used only occasionally in feeding private horses when they are exposed to bad, rough weather for any length of time, or when tired and jaded and worn down by long courses of hard work. In small quantities they will then be found very useful to invigorate the frame, and warm and stimulate the impaired strength and digestion; but they must not on any account be used if the horse be suffering from any inflammatory attacks either of the internal organs, or of the feet and legs, being too heating. In the autumn, when shedding the coat, many horses are subject to swelling of the legs; in such cases beans are particularly good; a quartern of good old beans a day to a quartern and a half may then be given with advantage, and if assisted by a few alterative balls will soon reduce all swelling, and strengthen and invigorate the horse in every way. Beans should be at all times a twelvemonth old. New beans are particularly objectionable, and do more harm than good.

White peas have the same effect as beans, and are used in the same way. To be good they must be old. Some prefer them to beans for hunters and horses that do fast work. Some, however, do better on peas and others on beans, which it is the duty of the groom to discover, and act accordingly.

Bran is the husk of wheat separated from the flour after being ground; it is very useful in the stable. It is made into mashes either hot or cold, and occasionally used for poultices for wounds, thorns, and blows. Mashes are very good given occasionally at night, instead of hay, as they have a laxative effect, and keep the horse's legs and body cool. After hunting, the horse should have a warm mash, with about a quartern and a half of scalded oats in it instead of dry hay and oats, being easier of digestion, as from having often been many hours without food, he is apt to eat fast and ravenously, and thus fills the stomach with food it is not in a condition properly to digest. Sunday being an idle day in most private stables, Saturday is generally selected to give a mash, which may be hot or cold, according to the time of year and the condition of the horse. About half a pailful is the proper quantity. A horse should not on any account have a mash the night before hunting, or any other hard work is required of him.

Some horses find a mash too relaxing under any circumstances; when a quartern of dry bran mixed with the oats at night will have the necessary effect.

Chaff

In all large establishments of working horses, as in the stables of omnibus proprietors and cab-masters, the object is to enable the horse to take his corn, etc. as quickly as possible and lie down to rest. For this purpose all the hay and clover is cut into chaff, and mixed with the oats, which not only enables the horse to eat it more readily and quickly, but also to grind it more thoroughly. Chaff is made of hay, clover, and wheat or barley or oat straw cut into short lengths, and then mixed. The general mixture for private stables is two-thirds good meadow-hay, and one-third clean wheat straw. Clover chaff is used principally for horses doing slower work than is generally the case with private horses.

Carrots are occasionally given to horses as a slight alterative, they should be washed clean, and cut up into pieces. Horses are particularly fond of them, a few now and then are very good, and keep the body cool, but they must be given sparingly to hunters and horses required for hard, fast work.

There are several kinds of green food for horses in the spring and summer, of which tares or vetches, Lucerne and clover are the principal. Tares or vetches when young are very good for fattening horses, but are then too relaxing for work; as they get older and full of seed they are harder, and with some corn, horses will do a considerable amount of work on them, but in a general way they are used only sparingly as a natural alterative, and given in a small quantity once or twice a day. Lucerne is a green meat, as tares, but harder and drier in its nature; a piece of Lucerne once sown will last for years, yielding at least five cuts every year; it wants to be kept very clean, and occasionally manured. Horses are not as fond of it as of tares and clover.

Clover like tares is very fattening, and too relaxing in a young and green state for horses to work upon. There are several other kinds of green food, but they are in all respects inferior to those I have mentioned.

Straw

For the bedding of horses wheat straw is generally used. The greater part of wheat is now thrashed out by machine, and but little by hand, consequently the straw is not so good, and does not last so long as formerly, the machine breaking and bruising the straw so much more than the flail.

A careless groom will use at least one truss of straw per week more to each horse, than a good careful one will use. The latter will be careful in the morning on turning up the bed to separate the soiled, dirty straw from that which may be used again; removing the former from the stable, he will then, after thoroughly sweeping out the stall or box, put what may be a little damaged at the bottom, and the clean at the top. Such a groom will use about two trusses to two and a half per week while another would use at least one truss a week more.

The best way to economise litter is to sweep the stall or box out as dry and as clean as possible in the morning, and take up the droppings regularly at once, before they are trodden into the straw.

Straw when good is bright and clean looking. The price will vary from 30s. to 45s. per load according to the season. In wet seasons it is difficult to get good straw, as it is generally then dark and mildewed-looking from the rain. At any time, good oat or barley straw is better for cutting into chaff than wheat straw, but it is not easy to obtain; most farmers keeping it for fodder for home use.

Economy in the stable depends entirely upon the groom. If he does his duty well and conscientiously, he will keep down the expenses as far as is practicable with justice to the horse. Nothing whatever is gained by buying cheap or inferior fodder, on the contrary the horse suffers in every way, in condition, appearance, and value.