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
SALTS───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│
CELLULOSE────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │
CARBOHYDRATES────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │
│ │ │
FATS─────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │
│ │ │ │
ALBUMINATES──────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
WATER─────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
ARTICLES │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │
══════╧═══════════════╤═══╧══╤═══╧═══╤═══╧═══╤═══╧════╤══╧═══╤══╧══
Grass, before blossom │ 75.0 │ 3.0 │ 0.8 │ 12.9 │ 7.0 │ 2.0
Grass, after blossom │ 69.0 │ 2.5 │ 0.7 │ 15.0 │ 11.5 │ 2.0
Meadow hay │ 14.3 │ 8.2 │ 2.0 │ 41.3 │ 30.0 │ 6.2
Oats │ 14.3 │ 12.0 │ 6.0 │ 60.9 │ 10.3 │ 3.0
Barley │ 14.3 │ 9.5 │ 2.5 │ 66.6 │ 7.0 │ 2.6
Maize, Indian │ 12.9 │ 9.23 │ 1.59 │ 68.0 │ 5.0 │ 1.66
Peas │ 14.3 │ 22.4 │ 2.5 │ 52.3 │ 9.2 │ 2.5
Beans │ 14.5 │ 25.5 │ 2.0 │ 45.5 │ 11.5 │ 3.5
Rice │ 14.6 │ 7.5 │ 0.5 │ 76.5 │ 0.9 │ 0.5
Linseed │ 11.8 │ 21.7 │ 37.0 │ 17.5 │ 8.0 │ 4.0
Bran │ 13.1 │ 14.0 │ 3.8 │ 50.0 │ 17.8 │ 5.1
Carrots │ 85.0 │ 1.5 │ 0.2 │ 10.8 │ 1.7 │ 1.0
Linseed cake │ 12.4 │ 27.3 │ 12.8 │ 34.5 │ 6.5 │ 6.1
══════════════════════╧══════╧═══╤═══╧═══╤═══╧════╤═══╧═══╤══╧═════
│ │ │ │
Represent muscle─forming─────────┘ │ │ │
ingredients │ │ │
│ │ │
Maintenance of animal heat───────────────┘ │ │
│ │
Waste─repairing ingredients───────────────────────┘ │
│
Woody─fibre ingredients, stimulate digestion and──────────┘
separate richer particles of food
TABLE.--COMMON WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
1 quart oats = 1 pound │ 1 ton hay = 2000 pounds
1 quartern oats = 2 pounds │ 1 bale hay = 300 pounds (varies
1 peck oats = 8 pounds │ 50 pounds)
1 bag oats = 65 pounds │ 1 ton loose hay occupies about
(1 lb. for the weight of bag) │ 500 cubic feet
2 pints oats = 1 quart │ 1 ton baled hay occupies space
2 quarts oats = 1 quartern │ of about 10 cubic yards
8 quarts oats = 1 peck │ 1 ton straw = 2000 pounds
4 pecks oats = 1 bushel │ 1 bale straw = 250 pounds (varies
2 bushels oats = 1 bag │ 50 pounds)
│ 1 ton loose straw occupies space
│ of about 600 cubic feet
│ 1 ton baled straw occupies space
│ of about 12 cubic yards