300 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE 



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But here we are at the watering trough, and despite 

 my implied promise, I shall button-hole the reader 

 for a moment more before we leave the main stable. 

 Horses require water that is pure and soft. Many 

 well-bred nags will not drink from a pail in which 

 another animal has already had his nose. The Arabs 

 regard pure water as of the highest importance ; 

 and they do not hesitate to risk their lives, as by 

 leaving camp at night when the enemy is near, in 

 order to water their horses at some fresh spring of 

 which they have knowledge. This is the form in 

 which they describe a man of thoroughly bad and 

 contemptible character : — 



" His horse drinks troubled water. 

 And his covering is full of holes." 



The oftener a horse drinks in the course of the 

 day, the less he will drink. Therefore, the best plan 

 is to have water always before him at his meals. It 

 was found by experiment at the Duke of Beaufort's 

 stables, that under this, the modern system, a horse 

 drank only five gallons, whereas, when watered but 

 twice during the day, he drank eight gallons. 1 Of 

 course, if the comparison had been made with three 

 instead of two waterings a clay, the discrepancy would 

 not have been so great. At Badminton, I believe, 

 slate troughs are used for this purpose. A better 

 plan, perhaps would be to have pail-holders fixed 

 alongside the grain mangers. Then a pail of fresh 

 water could be put in whenever the horse was fed. 



1 From this it seems necessary to infer that formerly at Bad- 

 mington horses were watered but twice a day, although it is 

 difficult to believe that so preposterous a system <was practised. 



