408 SALT AND THE QUALITY OF WATER. 



owners unite in declaring oats the best oats, though they 

 cost more than poor ones to be the cheapest. 



SALT. 



All horses require salt, and to satisfy this demand it is 

 customary to keep a piece of rock salt, weighing two or 

 three pounds, in the manger or a brick of finer salt in a 

 holder at the head of the stall. As some horses are apt to 

 consume more and others less than they should, the writer 

 prefers the method of mixing a little table salt with the 

 grain. One or two ounces divided so that some is given 

 with each feed of oats will be sufficient. 



THE QUALITY OF WATER. 



" The kind of water preferred for horses is that which is soft. Hard 

 water seems to be quite as good after the horse has become accustomed to 

 it. At first it disorders the skin and bowels a little ; the hair stares and the 

 skin is rigid ; the bowels are relaxed, and at fast work the horse is apt to 

 purge. In two or three weeks, often in as many days, he regains his usual 

 appearance, and continues to thrive as well on this hard water as he pre- 

 viously did on the soft. 



" Hard water may be softened a little by boiling it, and the addition of 

 about an ounce of the carbonate of soda to every pailful of water renders 

 it softer, but not, so far as I know, more fit for drinking. A change from 

 hard to soft water does not seem to produce any visible effect upon the 

 horse." John Stewart, "Stable Economy" p. 322. 



" There is nothing in which the different effect of hard and soft water 

 is so evident as in the stomach and digestive organs of the horse. Hard 

 water, drawn fresh from the well, will assuredly make the coat of a horse 

 unaccustomed to it stare, and it will not unfrequently gripe and otherwise in- 

 jure him." William Youatt, " The Horse," p. 138. 



" Soft water is generally considered preferable to hard, although I have 

 never known any bad results accrue to horses in India from the use of well 

 water that was good for human consumption. The hard water of some lime- 



