LIFE WITH THE TROTTERS. 303 



lime the horse wants to drink. I have been tokl by 

 people who have made a study of it that thirst in an 

 animal is one of the most cruel tortures that can be 

 applied. I once had a most interesting conversation with 

 a man who had made the taming of wild animals a lifetime 

 study, and he told me that the severest punishment that 

 could be aj)i)lied to animals was to i)ut them in a warm 

 room until they became thirsty, and that treatment would 

 subdue the animal when nothing else w^ould. In my boy- 

 hood days I knew a man who was a rather strange character; 

 he was a crank, the neighbors said, on training horses. 

 His way of breaking a balky horse was, when he refused 

 to draw the load, take him out of the harness and tie him 

 up where he could get nothing to drink. When he thought 

 the prisoner was in condition to aj)preciate a good drink 

 of water he would take him out and put him to the load 

 again, give him a few swallows of water and ask him to 

 work. If he did so, he was given all he wanted to drink; 

 if he did not work he was allowed to go without, and I 

 have often heard the man say that he had never come across 

 a horse that could not be conquered in that wa}' . 



In training a horse, his system will become more or less 

 fevered or dry from constant sweating and scraping and he 

 will naturally take more fluid into his stomach than he 

 would under other conditions. When I say give. your horse 

 all the water he wants before the race I do not mean that 

 you shall tie him u^) where he can not get a drink for five or 

 six. hours on a hot day in a Vv^arm stall, and then take him 

 to the i^ump and give him all he wants. What I mean is to 

 give him water often, and in that way he will take but a 

 small quantity at a time. I think it a bad idea to set a i^ail 

 of water in a horse's stall and leave it there until he has 

 -drank it uj). Physicians tell me there is nothing that will 

 absorb bad odors and become unhealthy quicker than water. 

 I am satisfied from my personal experience that good water 

 is absolutely necessary to train a horse to jDerfection. Some 

 of the best j)oints that I ever got about horse training I 



