Most frequently oats are given raw and whole. But occasionally they are bruised, or coarsely ground. Sometimes they are boiled, and sometimes germinated. There is no objection to bruising but the cost; grinding is never useful, and sometimes it is improper; boiling does not seem to improve oats, and, after the first week, high-fed horses prefer them raw; germination is rarely practised, and only for sick horses. In Lincolnshire oats are malted in salt water, and given for three weeks or a month in spring.

Oats are sometimes given in the straw, either cut or uncut The cost of thrashing is saved, but that is no great gain. It can not be known how much the horse gets. One may be cheated altogether out of a meal and another may be surfeited. There is always some waste, for the horse must be getting very little grain if he eat all the straw he gets along with it, and if he get more, some of the grain is left in the straw.

The Daily Allowance of oats is very variable. Hunters and racers receive almost as much as they will eat during the season of work. The quantity for these horses varies from twelve to sixteen or eighteen pounds per day. Stage and mail horses get about the same allowance. Some will not consume above fourteen pounds, others will manage nearly eighteen. In most stables some other grain is used. For every pound of barley or beans that may be given, rather more than an equal weight is taken off the ordinary allowance of oats. Saddle-horses receive about twelve pounds of oats cart-horses from ten to fourteen. Those employed on the farm get from four to twelve pounds. The ordinary feeding-measure in Scotland, termed a lippy, holds from three to four pounds of heavy oats.