266 THE HORSE 



as "hide-bound," and sometimes affecting the bowels in the form of 

 serous diarrhoea. But in course of time most sound horses become 

 accustomed to hard water, and then a change to that which is soft must 

 be carefully avoided whenever work is to be demanded of them. Thus 

 in sending hunters or harness-horses used in fast work from home, when 

 they have been accustomed to either kind of water, it often happens that 

 their health is upset, and this is quite as likely to occur when the change is 

 from hard to soft, as from soft to hard water. Trainers of valuable race- 

 horses are so aware of this fact, that irrespective of the risk of poisoning, 

 which they thereby avoid, they take water with them, knowing the injurious 

 effects likely to be produced by a sudden change. Hard water, if it con- 

 tains large quantities of carbonate of lime, may be made to deposit it to 

 some extent by boiling, but the sulphate of lime (or gypsum), which is 

 a far more common ingredient, is as soluble in hot water as in cold. 

 Evaporation by boiling causes the deposit of a large quantity of it on the 

 sides of the vessel used to contain the water, but the fluid remaining still 

 holds as much gypsum per gallon, and is not therefore benefited in the 

 slightest degree. 



THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF FEEDING 



IN ADAPTING the quantity and quality of horse-keep to the wants of 

 each horse, regard must be paid first of all to the small size of this 

 animal's stomach, which affects all alike ; secondly, to the work for which 

 he is designed ; and thirdly, to the peculiar constitution of each individual. 

 From the first of these causes the horse must never be allowed to fast for 

 any long period if it can possibly be avoided, it being found from experi- 

 ence that at the end of four hours his stomach is empty, and the whole 

 frame becomes exhausted, while the appetite is frequently so impaired if 

 he is kept fasting for a longer period, that when food is presented to him 

 it will not be taken. Previously to the introduction of railroads harness- 

 horses were often required to do long distances in the day, and it was 

 found that if the whole journey must be performed without stopping to 

 bait, it exhausted the horse less to increase the pace up to nine or ten 

 miles an hour than to dawdle over the ground on an empty stomach. If 

 two horses are driven or ridden fifty or sixty miles under similar condi- 

 tions as to the weight they have to draw or carry, and the one is taken at 

 the rate of six miles an hour, which will keep him fasting from eight and 

 a half to ten hours according to the distance, while the other is travelled 

 fast enough to do it in six or seven hours, the latter will be less exhausted 

 than the former, though even he would be all the better for a feed in the 

 middle of the journey, the time devoted to this act being easily picked up 

 by the increased energy which would be given by the corn. No horseman 

 of experience is ignorant of these facts, and after a long day the hunting 

 man who knows what he is about will always be seen on the look-out for 

 a feed of corn or a pint of oatmeal for his hunter, before he attends to his 

 own wants. The human stomach will bear hunger far better than that of 

 the horse, and if the rider feels his appetite pretty keen, he may be satis- 

 fied that the animal which carries him is still more in want of food. The 



