DRINKING ON A JOURNEY. 295 



owner, who has entrusted his horse to a man without 

 having ascertained that his subordinate knows any- 

 thing about the animal. 



So universal is this custom of keeping the horse 

 too long without food and then trying to make up 

 by over-feeding it, that even in high- class stables 

 there are few horses which have not more or less 

 suffered from it. A veterinary surgeon of long ex- 

 perience stated that he ' never dissected the carcase 

 of an aged animal without finding the capacity of the 

 stomach morbidly enlarged, and the walls of the 

 viscus rendered dangerously thin by repeated dis- 

 tension.' 



A groom who knows anything of the structure 

 of the horse will always bear in mind the all-important 

 maxim in feeding the horse — i.e. little and often. 



Then there comes the question of the amount of 

 water which a horse ought to have, and when it 

 ought to have it. The answer is simple enough. 

 Let the animal drink when it likes and as much as it- 

 likes, and it will never damage its stomach by over- 

 drinking. 



In this country there still prevails an idea, or 

 rather a superstition, that if a horse be allowed to 

 drink freely before starting on a journey, he will 

 become broken-winded by the end of it. I say 

 especially ' in this country,' because in America no 



