42 THE COMPLETE HORSEMAN 



that his horse should have water always before 

 him he must have a place made in which a pail 

 can be placed and insist that the pail be taken 

 out at least three times daily and refilled with 

 clean w^ater and thoroughly cleaned each time 

 it is moved. But even if he succeeds in getting 

 this attended to, which is by no means certain, 

 the plan is only a clumsy one at best. I adopted 

 it in some loose boxes but I dropped it when 

 I found one of my horses with the pail in his 

 mouth, knocking it about with no inconsiderable 

 risk of blemishing himself. 



At one time it was thought advisable to stint 

 the supply of water to horses. This is wrong. 

 A horse should be given as much water as he 

 will drink and he should always be watered 

 before he is fed. There was a lot of prejudice 

 against a horse having much water before he 

 went out hunting when I was a young man. 

 A few swallows before he got his corn and perhaps 

 a few more if he would not clean his corn up 

 were all he got until his day's work was over. 

 No more absurd plan could have been adopted. 

 Of course no one would think of giving a horse 

 a bucket of water if he were going to race the 

 next minute. But hunting is a different matter 

 and a horse may drink a bucket of water — most 

 likely he won't drink more than half a one — 

 at six o'clock and be none the worse for it for 

 the fastest work that is likely to come in his 

 way by half -past ten or eleven. I always gave 

 my hunters as much water as they cared to 



