24 THE HORSE 



carters, water their horses at the farm pond, the water in 

 which is usually of a most stagnant nature and totally 

 unfitted for drinking purposes. This offence is greatly 

 aggravated by the horses walking into the pond and 

 stirring up the mud or sand. Large quantities of sand 

 must necessarily be taken into the stomach and intestines, 

 where it acts as an irritant. Later on it will lead to the 

 production of sand colic and ultimately the death of the 

 animal. Horses which are fed off the ground are liable 

 to suffer in a similar manner. Greasy l^gs and cracked 

 heels are very liable to follow when horses are continually 

 going into the water of a pond. Doubtless many readers 

 will argue that their animals have been watered in this 

 way for years and never yet given any trouble, the answer 

 to which is that the risk still remains and the evil resulting 

 therefrom is bound to come sooner or later. Many of 

 these farm ponds contain an excess of nitrates, and these 

 alone may be the cause of loss of condition. The watering 

 pail should be kept exclusively for this purpose, and those 

 which are made of zinc are preferable to wooden ones. 



Wintering and Summering Horses 



There are some horse owners, although these are cer- 

 tainly in the minority, who allow their horses, excepting 

 when required for work, to remain out throughout the 

 winter and summer, both during the day and during the 

 night, beheving in the " open air system " of treating 

 horses. In the summer there is nothing better, but in the 

 winter it is a plan which cannot and should not be 

 generally adopted. With mountain and moorland ponies 

 the matter is quite different, but once a horse has been 

 stabled it is not right to allow it to remain at pasture 

 throughout the winter, unless it is provided with a 

 reasonable amount of shelter and a certain amount of 

 corn daily. At the end of the hunting season it is a general 

 custom to turn hunters out for the following four or five 



