MANAGEMENT OF THE FEET. 403 



horse being fully supplied with water. They think that it injures 

 his wind, and disables him tor quick and hard work. If he is 

 galloped, as he too ol'ten is, immediately after drinking, his wind 

 may be irreparably injured ; but if he were oftener suflered to 

 satiate his thirst at the intervals of rest, Jie would be happier 

 and better. It k^a fact unsuspected . by those who have not 

 carefully observea^he horse, that if he has frequent access to 

 water, he will not drink so much in the course of the day as 

 another will do, 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, tM^o or three quarts 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 is repeated three or lour times during a long and hot 



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

 to refuse his food, he should he pushed no farther that day. It 

 may, hoAvever, be worth while to try whether this does not pro- 

 ceed from thirst, as much as from exhaustion, for ini>many in- 

 stances 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 management that remains to be considered, and one sadly 

 neglected by the carter and groom. The feet should be care- 

 fully 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 may be raised, and endanger the wounding of 

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

 heel, and bruises 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 loot, or lameness, will be more readily detected, 

 and serious disease may often 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-rubbing will be preferable to washing, 

 especially in the agricultural horse, whose heels, covered with 

 long hair, can scarcely be dried again. If the dirt is suffered to 

 accumulate in that long liair, the heels will become sore, and 

 grease will follow ; and if the heliB are washed, and particu- 

 larly 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. Very little clay should be used in the 

 stopping, for it will get hard and press upon the sole. Cow- 

 dung is the best stopping to preserve the feet cool and elastic ; but 



