Some Things Never Change: Equine Exercise and Feed Management Advice from 1920

Today’s horse owners probably know the importance of having a feeding plan and sticking to it, making any modifications gradually over a period of several days.

Not only do the horses come to expect meals at certain times of the day, but also the microbial population in a horse’s gastrointestinal tract becomes adapted to digesting the particular types of grain and forage that are consumed. Making any change in the kind or amount of ingested material is best tolerated if it is not done too abruptly. Exercise plans for horses should be managed in the same way, with gradual increases and decreases rather than abrupt changes. Finally, the amount of feed should correlate to the amount of exercise the horse is being asked to perform.

Though many aspects of equine care have been revised in the last hundred years, some of the basic principles of management are still the same. For example, these bits of advice come from Special Pathology and Therapeutics of the Diseases of Domestic Animal, published in 1920:

No other domestic animal is so much exposed to errors in diet as the horse, especially in big cities where horses often receive spoiled food or improper food substitutes; often their meal time is not observed regularly; livery stable and dray horses must often work immediately after having been fed.

(Incidence of colic) is particularly striking after a sudden change of food and if the animals do not have enough exercise, as for instance in army horses after the fall manoeuvers when their work has become diminished very greatly while they receive their customary quantities of food or even more. This explains the increased frequency of cases of colic sometimes seen among army horses after the fall manoeuvers. For the treatment of army horses, we advocate a slow return, on foot, from the manoeuvers instead of by the short railway trip, because in this manner the animals are gradually accustomed to the diminished amount of work. The attempt should be made to secure permanent hay rations for army horses.