THE CARE OF HORSES. 301 



With a permanent watering trough in the stall, there 

 must be danger of the water becoming stale, and also 

 of the horse's drinking from it when he comes in 

 heated by his work. 



The next best thing to having water constantly 

 before the horse at his meals is to give it to him 

 frequently, four times a day being the minimum. 

 Should he be watered before or after eating ? All 

 the books say before, but in this country the almost 

 universal practice is to give it afterward. The the- 

 ory of the books is, that, when a horse is watered alter 

 his feed of grain, the water tends to wash the latter 

 out of his stomach, where it should digest, to the gut 

 or second stomach. But it seems to be more natural 

 for the horse, as it is for man, to drink after eating 

 rather than before, provided he cannot drink while 

 eating. A horse who is both hungry and thirsty will 

 refuse water until he has had food. There is another 

 consideration which I have never seen mentioned, 

 namely, that a horse is likely to eat his grain more 

 slowly, and to chew it better, if he is thirsty, than if 

 he has just been watered. My own way is to water 

 him after he has eaten his grain, and before he has 

 his hay. At Palo Alto the horses are watered two 

 hours after eating. Whatever the system adopted, 

 there is one time at which almost all horses like to 

 drink, and that is about nine or ten at night, w T hen the 

 stable is, or should be, visited by the groom or master, 

 the beds arranged if they need it, surcingles looked 

 to, and the horses watered. 



As to watering on the road, very good horsemen 

 differ widely in their practice, some eschewing water- 

 ing troughs almost altogether, whereas others drive 



