FEEDING OF HUNTERS 63 



units are ' lying alongside ' of one another in camp, 

 and you notice the officers of the one taking the keen- 

 est interest in the watering, that unit will look the 

 best. It is a duty which does require a great deal 

 of personal supervision on the part of the orderly 

 officer, as many men will not hesitate to hurry their 

 horses over their drink in order the sooner to 

 commence their own. A horse does not like to 

 drink in a hurry, and enjoys the luxury of having 

 two or three goes at his bucket or trough. If you 

 have to water your horses in this way, impress this 

 fact on your groom. 



Forty or fifty years ago civilian grooms had 

 quaint and barbarous customs of stinting horses of 

 food and water for about twelve hours before they 

 went on to the meet. This, I suppose, combined 

 with mistaken notions as to conditioning, caused 

 the number of deaths we read of during any excep- 

 tional long hunt, and which we see illustrated by 

 Aiken and others ; for instance, in the series on 

 the great Billesdon Coplow run. And yet hounds 

 in those days probably 'did not go nearly as fast as 

 their descendants. 



I need not impress on you to be most careful 



as to the quality of your forage. In the numerous 



works to which I have before referred you 



Forage . ^ 



will learn all that printed matter can 

 teach you as to the quality of oats, hay, &c. ; but 



