FEEDING AND STABLE MANAGEMENT

Experience has shown that one man can care for three horses; that two men can care for seven; three men are needed for ten, and so on. But even this must be modified. Where the members of the family live in the country and do most of their own driving, these figures are correct, but in an establishment where two men are required on the box with one or more vehicles, and a groom must accompany each trap, and there is, to boot, a fair amount of riding, additional help is needed in the stable, if everything is to go smoothly; and horses, harnesses, saddles, and carriages are to be turned out well.

The whole problem of the care and system of a stable centres around the horse, and more particularly the horse's stomach. No animal, in proportion to its size, has such a small stomach as a horse. The stomach of a man, whose weight is one-eighth of that of a horse, will hold something more than three quarts of water; while the stomach of a horse will only hold three gallons, or four times that quantity. The great bulk of the horse requires a large quantity of food, and what food he eats digests and passes through him quickly. If this were not so, the stomach would for a large part of the time be so distended and so press upon other organs of the body that his usefulness would be seriously impaired.

He must, therefore, be fed regularly and often, that is to say, three times a day at least, and four times is better. The management of the stable must hinge, therefore, upon the meal hours of its inmates and their use by the owners—where horses must do duty at an early train in the morning and another train in the evening, or where horses are out shopping from 11 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. and there is driving and riding in the afternoon, and night duty as well, the routine of the stable must be adapted to those demands.

In the case of a large stable, where three or four men are kept, a regular routine of duty should be laid out as on shipboard, with hours and duties clearly set down, otherwise confusion will reign. In a small stable the requirements of the family should be so far as possible along regular lines, and in all cases everywhere no coachman or groom ought to be subjected to calls for horses without warning. By nine o'clock in the morning the orders for horses wanted up to noon should be given; by two o'clock the orders for horses wanted up to eight o'clock. This cannot be done always, but it ought to be done so far as possible, otherwise the best-natured and most systematic man in the world will find it impossible to keep his stable running smoothly, his horses fed and watered and dressed at the proper times, and, most important of all, his horses ready for work when they are needed.

A horse just watered, or with a stomach full of hay, or with a hearty feed in him, is perhaps the most uncomfortable of all conveyances, and if worked hard under the circumstances does himself serious injury.

There is no real pleasure, no real sport, in this world that does not entail intelligence and labor. It is one of the greatest of pleasures, one of the most wholesome sports, to own, to ride, and to drive horses. But to have a stable of, say, from three to ten horses and to get your own fun out of it, requires work, intelligence, and oversight.

Visit your friends who have horses and see how often this horse cannot go out, that horse cannot go out. One is lame, another has a sore back, another is used up from yesterday, and so on. Or look about you at the condition of your neighbors' horses,—tired-looking, staring coats, bags of bones to look at, rattling carriages and ill-fitting harnesses, interfering, and overreaching; and these establishments cost money and are supposed to give pleasure.

How shall we avoid all this? If you have no interest in your stable and have no time, say half an hour a day, to devote to it, and no other member of the family knows or cares anything about it, by all means job your horses and do not attempt a stable. At least you can avoid being particeps criminis in the ruining of horses, the spoiling of coachmen and grooms, and the wasteful destruction of harnesses and carriages.

But if you have a stable, look after it. Provide yourself with a Stable Book; a long-leaved book of a hundred and fifty pages,—the left-hand page with the month at the top and thirty-one spaces below for days of the month. At the top as headings have Feed—Shoeing—Repairs—Cash—Miscellaneous. On the right-hand page have blank space for Remarks and any details about horses, veterinary visits, horses bought or sold. The coachman should enter against the proper dates what horses are shod and how, what feed comes in, all articles, including clothes, purchased, and all other details. This book comes in at the end of the month, to be compared with the owners' bills, and he should add the amounts and check off the items. Both the coachman and the owner should know to a penny what the stable is costing.

We have all probably discovered that we do not know where to save, if we do not know how we spend. The beginning of all economy is the knowledge of expenditures. It may be maintained just here that all this is too much trouble! Those who feel that way had best close the book. Neither this chapter nor any of the others is written for those who know it all,—of whom, alas, there are so many,—nor for those who do not wish to know anything which entails trouble.

The necessary implements for the work of the stable should be furnished willingly, and buckets, hose, forks, hangers, clothes, chamois, hooks, brooms, sponges, should be kept in repair or renewed. It is a poor plan to economize at the working end of the stable. One or two horses or traps less, or a groom less, but let what you have be good of its kind and be kept good.

Once a week the stable should be washed out, polished, and dusted, and sprinkled with Sanitas or some other good disinfectant, and the owner should, as they say on shipboard, have "quarters." Look over everything from end to end; if you do not take that much interest in the matter, it is not likely that the executive officer at the stable will retain a very enthusiastic interest in the affairs of the stable for long. A man with half an eye can tell, from the horses, harnesses, and vehicles he sees, whether the owners coÖperate with their coachmen or not.

A man should be able to groom a horse thoroughly in from thirty to forty minutes, and this work should be done, if possible, away from the other horses.

A good routine for stable management can only be worked out by each man for himself, according to the regular demands upon the stable from the family, as a basis.

Although horses are kept primarily to work, it is by no means easy, although of all things most necessary, that they should have exercise regularly. Many of the accidents and much of the illness in most stables arise from irregular exercise and careless feeding. The average horse in the private stable should be out two hours a day, and should do ten miles. With one day's rest in seven, seasoned horses can do more than this—up to fifteen, and even more, miles a day—and be the better for it.

Their muscles harden, respiratory organs are less liable to disease, and, strange as it may sound to the uninitiated, their feet and legs do better, even when the work is on hard roads. Swelled legs, founder, azoturia, colic, and the like are more often the result of overfeeding and under exercising than the reverse.

If the feet are washed out when the horse returns to the stable—being careful to dry the legs thoroughly—and stopped at night with a sponge or bit of thick felt, these precautions, with regular exercise and judicious feeding, will do more than anything else to keep your horses in condition to go when you want them. Coachmanitis and groomaturia sometimes interfere with the owner's wish to use his horses; and where this malady is of frequent occurrence, a prolonged holiday is the only remedy.

There are some men who are constitutionally unfitted to get on with men under them. They are not necessarily bad men, but, from their golf caddy to their butlers and secretaries, they are disliked. One woman will run her house year after year without friction; another, of the bumptious variety, will supervise the whole universe, while her husband, children, and household drift, growl, and suffer. One man will step aboard a yacht, and his crew and officers will pull and haul and quarrel and leave; while another, with the same men, will have no trouble. The writer has no prescription to offer for the curing of fussy wives or bad masters. It is not to be expected that even the Almighty will create a man who shall combine the attributes of Oliver Cromwell and Heinrich Heine. But in this matter of the management of the stable there are a few rules worth keeping in mind.

Don't use your influence till you get it!

Don't worry yourself or others about trifles!

In the vital matters of honesty, sobriety, carefulness, neatness, be insistent and positive.

Don't put on airs about things of which you know less than your coachman.

Don't show your damned authority—as the Irishman with his pig—just for the pleasure of showing it!

Horses, no doubt, lived upon grasses and the like when they cared for themselves. Horses even now can do a certain amount of slow work upon hay alone, but to do this a large quantity is needed, say from eighteen pounds to twenty pounds. But by a mixture of food a horse can be made to do more and faster and more exhausting work.

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.

Salt is so necessary a part of the horse's diet that it is best to have a piece of rock salt weighing two or three pounds always in his manger, rather than to leave it to his feeders to give him so much at each meal, which often results in an irregular supply.

Express companies and other large owners and users of horses have been experimenting with molasses as a food. It has been used, too, in both the French and German armies. One quart of molasses, three quarts of water, one and one-half pounds of corn meal, one and one-half pounds of bran, and six pounds of cut hay, is the proper mixture for one horse, and should be fed morning and evening, with some dry oats at noon. This is, of course, very much cheaper than the usual methods of feeding, and in a number of cases has proved successful. The writer has seen horses fed upon this diet; they did the slow and heavy work in large brewers' wagons, and looked sleek and well, and were said to do their work as well if not better than on the old system of feeding. It is difficult to use molasses in private stables, particularly in summer, when it attracts flies and sours when left in the manger, but it is a good adjunct to the bill of fare in any stable, and anything that gives variety and is wholesome is valuable as a food.

Table.—Nutritive Value of Certain Articles of Diet in 100 Parts

(1) Represent muscle-forming ingredients.

(2) Maintenance of animal heat.

(3) Waste-repairing ingredients.

(4) Woody-fibre ingredients, stimulate digestion and separate richer particles of food.

Table.—Common Weights and Measures