TREATMENT AFTER A HARD RUN 191 



severe run, or after profuse sweating, I need not 

 expatiate upon. The stomach — that great centre of 

 sjmipathy — partakes too much of the general ex- 

 haustion of the system not to be highly sensible to 

 such an extreme. When its blood-vessels are distended, 

 which no doubt they are after severe exertions, cold 

 water will sometimes produce a total stagnation of 

 the blood, and immediate death will ensue. A friend 

 of mine lost a valuable gig horse in this way. He 

 was driving him one very hot day, and by way, as he 

 thought, of refreshing him, gave him a few swallows 

 of water out of a deep well, and he was dead in half 

 an hour. At all seasons of the year water that is 

 exposed to sun and air is to be preferred, but that 

 which runs over gravel is always cold. 



Although cold water, after great exertion, is danger- 

 ous, yet it is wonderfully refreshing to horses that are 

 exhausted. I remember once tiring a horse in the 

 wildest part of Northamptonshire, and no village at 

 hand. I left him in the field with my groom, scarcely 

 able to walk ; but he brought him home (sixteen miles) 

 that night, recovering his strength and spirits, as he 

 told me, after every sip of water he gave him on the 

 road. The present system of giving gruel to horses 

 on their road home, and when they get into their 

 stable, is a most excellent one, and greatly promotes 

 their recovery from fatigue. 



Horses that are troubled — as many a good hunter 

 is — with chronic cough should have great attention 

 paid to them in their water. They invariably cough 

 after drinking it, which too plainly shews the effect 



