The Use of Sawdust. 511 



WATER. 



Horses should be watered in the morning before they are fed, and then water left beside 

 them for an hour or so. To water horses after they are fed is a sure way of producing 

 indigestion, if not inflammation. 



When the water is collected in a cistern, it should be provided with a self-acting filter. 



When a horse has water beside him when feeding, he may be observed taking a mouthful 

 of oats and hay, and then a slight drink of water alternately. With this arrangement horses 

 never drink too much, except when returning from exercise. But the water should not be left 

 all day in a stable, to imbibe the fumes of ammonia. 



Horses have been killed by drinking water from a deep cold well when heated ; but 

 warm or tepid water is as offensive to them as to us. It should be allowed to obtain a proper 

 temperature by being placed under cover — in the saddle-room or washing-room, for instance 

 or by adding a little meal or linseed tea— not in the stables, to absorb the exhalations of the 

 litter and of the horses. 



Where horses scour after drinking, it is advisable to add just enough warm water to take 

 the chill off, or a little wheaten flour, which has a slightly astringent effect. 



BED LITTER. 



An important item in maintaining the condition of a hard-worked horse is a good bed 

 when he comes in tired. When he is not worked in the daytime he is much better standing 

 on a hard flat surface than on soft litter, which produces half the diseases of the feet. Bog-earth, 

 sand, fireclay, are all used for litter. The material is of no consequence so long as it is dry 

 and soft for the horses to lie down. The ordinary material is straw ; but in many instances 

 sawdust is to be preferred. Where horses stand idle in loose boxes, it does not clog and 

 heat the feet like straw impregnated with urine and dung. The droppings are removed from 

 sawdust with ease, and without waste. Horses inclined to eat straw — even foul straw— will 

 not touch sawdust. 



Where the trusses of straw are long, it is a good plan to cut them in two with a knife 

 fixed on a hinge and block made for the purpose. 



The first duty of a groom in the morning, after watering his horses, is to sort out and 

 remove the wet straw and dung, and take out the better part, which can be used again, to 

 be dried in some convenient place, while the horse, racked up, is eating his first feed. 



In some stables all the straw is removed until a fresh bed is made at night, and until 

 that time the rack-chain prevents the horse from lying down. In any case, the bedding should 

 never be heaped up under the manger, under the horses nose. Indeed, it is well to fill up the 

 space underneath the manger with boarding, so as to leave no space either for straw or the 

 horse's head. 



Fresh straw bedding should be placed in the rear of the stall, so as not to get the horse 

 into the bad habit of eating his litter. But as no such precaution can be adopted in loose 

 boxes, that is an additional reason for using sawdust in them. 



Where the stud is large, it may be worth while to provide a shed for drying the litter, 

 which may also be used as an exercising school in inclement weather. 



It may be doubted whether horses can lie as warmly, although they may lie quite as 

 softly, on sawdust as on straw. 



