176 TRAINING. 



or a little chalk and clay may be added to the 

 water, letting it stand for an hour in the sun. 

 As to training on actual hard water, you might 

 as well try to train on bricks ; a horse will not 

 keep in condition upon it. River VA^ater should 

 generally be chosen in preference to w^ell water, 

 as being softer, and ten or twelve degrees 

 warmer ; but clean well water, if not harder or 

 colder, is quite as wholesome. During the cold 

 weather, water from a deep well, in the early 

 part of the day, is as warm as river water. The 

 water in the cold weather is frequently in the 

 morning too cold for a horse in training to drink ; 

 but by stirring your hand round in the dhool 

 for two or three minutes, you may raise it to a 

 proper warmth, without the addition of hot water, 

 the smell and taste of which, to many horses, are 

 very disagreeable. Placing a tub of water in 

 the stall all day, so that he may drink ad libitum, 

 is a mistake, arising out of the discovery, that, 

 when water is always within a horse's reach, and 

 before his eyes, he will drink less than when only 

 watered twice a-day ; but the object is not only 

 that he should never over-swill himself with 

 water, but also that it should be drunk at that 

 time that most facilitates digestion. This tub- 

 system, like the English one of taking to a pond 



