It often happens that horses who are much in the stable, and receiving an unlimited allowance of food, are never permitted to fast. They get food so often, and so much at a time, that they always have some before them. This is not right. A short fast produces an appetite, and induces the horse to eat more, upon the whole, than when he is cloyed by a constant supply. If not on full work, the horse eats too much, although not so much as he would after short and periodical fasts. Still he eats more than his work demands. He should not have an unlimited quantity The food is wasted, and the horse becomes too fat. But when the work is so laborious that the digestive apparatus can not furnish more nutriment than the system consumes, then the more the horse eats the better; and a short fast prior to every feeding hour creates an appetite. When grain is always before him, he never becomes sufficiently hungry to eat heartily. In some places thirty or forty minutes are allowed to feed; and when the time expires, a man goes round the mangers and removes all the grain that is left.

In other places the left grain is not taken away, but, if not all eaten before the next feeding hour, no more is given at that time.

The Hours of Feeding must vary with the work; when that is regular, the hours of feeding should be fixed. After the horse has become accustomed to them, they should not be suddenly changed. When the work is irregular, the horse often called to it without much notice, and when it does not demand an empty stomach, the horse should be fed often. By giving the allowance at four or five services, instead of two or three, the horse is always ready for the road. He can never nave so much in his stomach at any time as if he were fed seldomer. On a posting establishment, all the horses that are in should not be fed at the same time; one pair, or two, or more, may be kept in readiness for work, not fed till some others are ready.

It is probable that fixed hours of feeding are favorable to digestion, and it is certain that any sudden and considerable change of hour is attended with disadvantage. When the interval of abstinence is abridged, the horse does not eat so heartily; and when prolonged, he becomes exhausted. But when there are no fixed hours observed, the horse's appetite is the only guide. When the feeding hours are variable, the horse gets hungry only when the system wants nutriment; when the hours are fixed, the stomach demands a supply, whether the system wants it or not.

The Bulk of the Food is an important consideration in the feeding of horses. When fed entirely, or chiefly, upon hay, grass, or roots, they are not fit for fast work. There are three reasons why they are not. Bulky food distends the stomach and makes it encroach upon the lungs, and impede breathing; its weight encumbers the horse; and it does not yield sufficient nutriment. The horse may be able enough for slow work, because that work does not demand all the energies of the system. But hunting, coaching, and racing, are tasks of such labor, that the least impediment to breathing renders the horse unable to perform them. Hay or grass alone will yield sufficient nourishment to an idle horse; but he must eat a great deal of it; so much that his belly is always very large; the bowels must be constantly full. Such a load is not so easily carried in the belly as on the back.

This weight, and the difficulty of breathing, are sufficient to render bulky food unfit for fast-working horses. But even slow work, when exacted in full measure, demands food in a condensed form. The work, though slow, requires more nutriment than a bellyful of hay or grass will yield. The nourishment extracted from hay, straw, or potatoes, may be quite as good as that extracted from oats; but the stomach and the bowels can not hold enough of these bulky articles.

A horse may gallop at the top of his speed for a few moments, even when his bowels are loaded with bulky food; but he soon stops or staggers, over-marked, or broken-winded, or he takes colic; one or all of these evils may be expected when he is put to fast work with his bowels loaded. Bulky food also renders the horse exceedingly liable to colic; and to me this appears to be the principal reason why the disease is so much more common in draught than in saddle horses.

Condensed Food, for reasons already stated, is necessary for fast-working horses. Their food must be in less compass than that of the farm or cart horse. But to this condensation there are some limits. Grain affords all, and more than all, the nutriment a horse is capable of consuming, even under the most extraordinary exertion. His stomach and bowels can hold more than they are able to digest; [or, if it could be digested, it would furnish more nutriment than could be assimilated; or, if assimilated, than the system demands.] Something more than nutriment is wanted. The bowels must suffer a moderate degree of distension; more than a wholesome allowance of grain can produce. They are very capacious. In the dead subject nearly thirty gallons of water can be put into them. It is evident they were not intended for food in a very condensed form; and it seems that they require a moderate degree of pressure or dilatation to assist their functions. It is not certain that their secretions, sensations, and contractions, are altered by emptiness, but it is probable.

They must have something to act upon.

When hay is very dear, and grain cheap, it is customary, in many stables, to give less than the usual allowance of hay and more grain. The alteration is sometimes carried too far, and it is often made too suddenly. The horses may have as much grain as the) will eat, yet it does not suffice without fodder. Having no hay, they will leave the grain to eat the litter. A craving sensation of emptiness seems to arise and the horse endeavors to relieve it by eating straw The sensation can not be the same as that of hunger, otherwise the horse would devour his grain. While he has plenty of grain, and plenty of litter, the diminished allowance of hay is borne with impunity. [The bowels need distension; hay contains a large amount of woody fibre; this produces distension, and is ejected as fecal matter. Without distension and abundant fecal matter, there can be no health.]

When sufficiency is not obtained in any shape, the horse loses appetite, emaciates; his bowels are confined: his flank sadly tucked up - his belly indeed almost entirely disappears; in general he drinks little water, and when he takes much he is apt to purge. His belly is often noisy, rumbling of the bowels; apparently containing a good deal of air, which occasionally produces slight colicky pains. These horses are said, and I believe truly said, to be very liable to crib-biting and wind-sucking. It is certain that the diseases are exceedingly rare among those that live on bulky food.

When the ordinary fodder, then, is very dear, its place must be supplied by some other which will produce a wholesome distension, though it may not yield so much nutriment. Straw or roots, either or both, may be used in such cases. The excessively tucked-up flank, and the horse's repeated efforts to eat his litter, show when his food is not of sufficient bulk.

When work demands the use of condensed food in a horse that has been accustomed for some time to bulkier articles, the change should be made by degrees. Coming from grass, or the straw-yard, the horse, for a time, requires more fodder than it would be proper to allow him at his work.