350 THE HORSE. 



in summer, and when it is many degrees below the temperature of the 

 atmosphere. The water in tiie brook and the pond being warmed by long 

 exposure to the air, as well as having become soft, the iiorse drinks IVeeU 

 of it without danger. 



If the horse were watered three times a day, and especially in summer, 

 he would often be saved from the sad torture of thirst, and from many a 

 disease. Whoever has observed the eagerness with which the over- 

 worked horse, hot and tired, plunges his muzzle into the pail, and the 

 difficulty of stopping him until he has drained the last drop, may form 

 some idea of what he had previously suifered, and will not wonder 

 at the violent spasms, and inflammation, and sudden death, that often result 

 from drinking too much cold water. 



There is a prejudice in the minds of many people against the horse being 

 fairly supplied with water. They think that it injures his v/ind, and dis- 

 ables him for quick and hard work. If he is galloped, as he too often is, 

 immediately after drinking, his v/ind may be irreparably injured; but if 

 he were oftencr suffered to satiate his thirst at the intervals of rest, he 

 would be happier and better. It is a itxct unsuspected by those who have 

 not carefully observed the horse, that if he has frequent access to water he 

 will not drink so much ^in the course of the day, as another who, to cool his 

 parched mouth, swallows as fast as he can, and knows not when to stop. 



On a journey a horse should be liberally supplied with water. When 

 he is a little cooled, two or three quarts of water may be given to him, and 

 after that his feed. Before he has finished his corn, two or three quarts 

 more may be offered. He will take no harm if this be repeated three or 

 four times during a long and hot day. 



It is a judicious rule with travellers, that when a horse begins to refuse 

 his food, he should be pushed no farther that day. It may, however, be 

 worth while to try whether this may not proceed from thirst, as much as 

 from exhaustion, for in many instances his appetite and his spirits will 

 return soon after he has partaken of the refreshing draught. 



Management of the Feet. — This is the only division of stable manage- 

 ment that remains to be considered, and one sadly neglected by the carter 

 and groom. The feet should be carefully examined every morning, for 

 the shoes may be loose, and the horse would have been stopped in the 

 middle of his work; or the clenches maybe raised, and endanger the 

 wounding of his legs; or the shoe may begin to press upon the sole or the 

 heel, and bruise of the sole, or corn, may be the result ; and, the horse 

 having stood so long in the stable, every little increase of heat in the foot, 

 or lameness, will be more readily detected, and serious disease may 

 probably be prevented. 



When the horse comes in at night, and after the harness has been taken 

 off* and stowed away, the heels should be well brushed out. Hand-rub- 

 bing will be preferable to washing, especially in the agricultural horse, 

 whose heels, covered with long hair, can scarcely be dried again. If the 

 dirt be suffered to accumulate in that long hair, the heels will become sore, 

 and grease will follow; and if the heels are washed, and particularly 

 during the winter, grease will result from the coldness occasioned by the 

 slow evaporation of the moisture. The feet should be stopped — even the . 

 feet of the farmer's horse, if he remains in the stable. No clay stopping 

 should be used, for it will get hard, and press upon the sole; cow-dung is 

 the best stopping to preserve the feet cool and elastic ; but before the 

 stopping is applied, the picker must be run round the whole of the foot 

 between the shoe and the sole, to detect any stone which may have 



