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NATURAL CLEANLINESS OF THE 



HORSE. 



" But he was fastidious as a lord, 

 And particular about bed and board ; 

 But spirited and docile too, 

 Whate'er was to be done, would do. 



Perhaps no animal is so fastidious about its food 

 and drink as the horse, which is naturally an herbivo- 

 rous animal ; hence its thin and muscular lips, its 

 firm and compressed mouth, and its sharp incisor 

 teeth, are admirably adapted to seizing and cropping the 

 grass ; while the peculiar construction of some of the 

 bones of the face enable it to grind down its food as 

 perfectly as it could be ground in the best constructed 

 mill. The olfactory nerve of the horse is more than 

 four times the size of that in man. Hence the horse can 

 detect smells that might escape the notice of man, and 

 an effluvia that did not attract his attention might be a 

 source of great annoyance to the horse. It is a well- 

 known fact that horses will not eat food that has been 

 breathed upon and left in the trough or manger, conse- 

 quently care should be taken never to pack or put more 

 food in the manger than can be readily disposed of. The 

 horse is as particular about the water it drinks as the 

 food it eats ; and it is asserted by some authorities that 

 the quality of the water supplied has a peculiar effect 

 upon the animal. Thus, hard water, freshly drawn from 

 the well causes griping and roughens the coat of the 

 animal. The temperature of the water given to a horse 

 is a matter of very great consequence. Water taken 



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