On a journey, or after a severe day, horses often refuse their food. When fatigued, tired of his feed, a handful of salt may be thrown among the horse's grain.. That will often induce him to eat it, and it will assist digestion, or at least render fermentation less likely to occur. Some, however, will not eat even with this inducement. Such may have a cordial ball, which in general produces an appetite in ten minutes. I am speaking of cases in which the horse has become cool, and those in which the work has not fevered him. The horse should always be cool before food is offered; and if his eye be red, and pulse quick, cordials, salt, and the ordinary food, are all forbidden. The horse is fevered.

Abstinence unusually prolonged is connected with indigestion, and it produces debility.

The Indigestion of Abstinence may in some cases arise from an enfeebled condition of the digestive apparatus. The stomach and bowels may partake of the general languor and exhaustion, and be in some measure unable to perform their functions; but of this there is no proof. When a horse has fasted all day, he is very apt to have colic soon after he is fed at night. It happens very often. The voracious manner in which the horse feeds has something to do with it. He devours his food in great haste, without sufficient mastication, and he often eats too much. The sudden and forcible distension of the stomach probably renders it unable to perform its duty. The quantity, the quality, and the hurried ingestion of the food, account for the frequency of colic, after a long fast, without supposing that the stomach is weak. The appetite seems to indicate that. it. is not.

The result may be prevented. Give the horse food oftener when prolonged abstinence is unavoidable, give him leas than he would eat. Divide the allowance into two feeds, with an interval of at least one hour between each. In this way the appetite dies before the stomach is overloaded. To prevent hurried ingestion, give food that is not easily eaten. Boiled food, after a long fast, is unsafe, and grain should be mixed with chaff.

The Debility or Inanition of Abstinence is denoted by dul-ness. The horse is languid, feeble, and inoffensive. Want of food tames the very wildest; and sometimes vicious horses are purposely starved to quietness. The time a horse may fast before he lose any portion of his vigor, varies very much in different individuals. In some few, it may depend upon peculiarity of form. Light-bellied narrow-chested horses can not afford to fast so long as those of round and large carcase. But in general the power of fasting depends upon habit, the kind of food, and the condition of the horse. When accustomed to receive his food only twice or thrice a day, he can fast longer by an hour or two, without exhaustion, than when he is in the habit of eating four or five times. As a general rule, liable, however, to many exceptions, it may be held that a horse begins to get weak soon after his usual hour of eating is past. The degree and rapidity with which his vigor fails depend upon his work and condition. If idle, or nearly so, for a day or two previous, he may miss two or three meals before exhaustion is apparent. Languor is probably felt sooner. If in low condition, he can not fast long without weakness. He has nothing to spare.

If his usual food be all or partly soft, he can not bear abstinence so well as when it is all or partly hard.

Horses in daily and ordinary work should seldom fast more than three or four hours. They generally get grain four or five times a day, and between the feeding hours they are permitted to eat hay; so that, except during work, very few horses fast more than four hours. But some, such as hunters and racers, are often required to fast much longer. Hunters are sometimes out for more than nine hours, and they go out with an empty stomach, or with very little in it. The only evil arising from such prolonged abstinence is exhaustion, and among fast-working horses that can not be avoided. The work and the abstinence together may produce great exhaustion and depression, and the horse may require several days of rest to restore him. But if he had been fed in the middle of this trying work, he would have been unable to complete it. The evils arising from prolonged abstinence are less dangerous than those arising from fast work on a full stomach.

The work which must be performed with an empty stomach, should be finished as quickly as circumstances will permit. In order that the racer or the hunter may have all the vigor he ought to have, his work should be over before abstinence begins to produce debility. How long he must fast before he is fit to commence his task, must depend upon the pace, the distance, and the horse's condition. The stomach, after an ordinary meal of grain, is probably empty in about four hours. For a pace of eight or ten miles an hour, it does not need to be empty; if the food be so far digested that it will not readily ferment, a little may remain in the stomach without rendering the horse unfit for exertion of this kind. Coaching-horses, therefore, go to the road in from one to two hours after feeding. For a hunting-pace, perhaps a digestion of two hours will secure the food from fermentation : and in that time, after a moderate meal, the weight and bulk of the food which remains in the stomach will not encumber the horse nor impede his breathing. For a racing-pace the stomach must be empty, and the bowels must not be full. I do not know exactly how long racers are fed before commencing their work. The time appears to vary, spare feeders not being required to fast so long as those of better appetite.

I rather think that they are often, or sometimes, kept too long without food; but I have little right to venture an opinion on the subject. It appears that racers sometimes receive no food on running days till their work is over. If hay were withheld for twelve hours, and grain for three or four before starting, I should think such restriction would be sufficient. These horses, however, are always in high condition; they can afford to fast for a long time before fasting produces exhaustion, and the distance they run is so short that the expenditure of nutriment is not great. With horses in lower condition, having less spare nutriment in them, a fast of twelve hours produces a sensible diminution of energy, and in this state he is not fit to perform all that he could perform after abstinence of only four or six hours. In the course of training, cither for the course or the field, the groom should learn how long the horse can bear fasting without losing vigor, and that will tell him how to regulate the diet on the day of work.

When the distance is considerable, or the work requiring several hours of continuous exertion, the waste of nutriment is greater than when the distance is short, or the work soon over, and the abstinence must be regulated accordingly. For a long road, the sooner a horse is fit to begin his task after deeding, the less will he be exhausted at the end of it.

To prevent, in some degree, the debility of abstinence when the work forbids food, it is not unusual, I believe, to give a little spirits of wine. Between the heats of a race a pint of sherry or two glasses of brandy may be given in a quart of water. The horse will drink it, and I do not know of any objection to such a practice. The energy it inspires is over in about an hour, and it is not developed in less than ten minutes. From ten to fifteen minutes before running is therefore the proper time to give it; the horse may run in five, but in that case the race will be over before the stimulant operates. [We must discountenance spirituous stimulants to give temporary energy. If any be necessary, a nervous one should be used.]

I have said that the only evil arising from prolonged abstinence is exhaustion. There is, however, one more, and though of little consequence, it deserves notice. When the stomach is empty, and the bowels containing very little, the horse is sometimes troubled with flatulence. The bowels seem to contain a good deal of air. They are noisy: the horse has slight intermitting colicky pains, which do not last above a minute, are never violent, and cease as the air is expelled. I have never known this require any particular treatment; but a little spirits, or half a dose of the colic mixture, or a feed of oats, or a cordial ball, removes it at once.