WATEEIXG. 25 



These hints on feeding may be closed with a remark, 

 that in all large towns contractors divo, to be found ready 

 and willing to enter into contract for feeding gentle- 

 men's horses by the month or year. This is a very 

 desirable arrangement for masters, but one frequently 

 objected to by servants, who, however, in such cases 

 can easily be replaced by application to the dealer, he 

 having necessarily excellent opportunities of meeting 

 with others as efficient. 



Contractors should not be allowed to supply more 

 than two or three days' forage at a time. 



WATERING. 



Horses are greater epicures in water than is generally 

 supposed, and will make a rush for some favourite 

 spring or rivulet where water may have once proved 

 acceptable to their palate, when that of other drinking- 

 places has been rejected or scarcely touched. 



The groom's common maxim is to water twice a-day, 

 but there is little doubt that horses should have access 

 to water more frequently, being, like ourselves or any 

 other animal, liable from some cause — some slight de- 

 rangement of the stomach, for instance — to be more 

 thirsty at one time than another; and it is a well- 

 known fact that, where water is easily within reach, 

 these creatures never take such a quantity at a time as 

 to unfit them for moderate worlz at any moment. If 

 an arrangement for continual access to water be not 

 convenient, horses should be watered before every feed, 

 or at least thrice a-day, the first time being in the 

 morning, an hour before feeding (which hour will be 



