40 THE HORSE : ITS KEEP AND MANAGEMENT. 



are others who only allow their horses but a very little to 

 drink at a time and never chill the water at all. There are 

 great difficulties attending this practice also. For instance, 

 we will say here is a horse which is never allowed to drink 

 when he is hot ; he goes on a long journey, and the ostler 

 at the hotel, or the place where the animal is put up, 

 happens to turn his head for a minute, or it may be while 

 he is washing the horse's legs, it gets at the pail of water 

 he is washing the legs with, or manages to get to a trough 

 of water ; in this case the probabilities are, it either brings 

 on gripes or causes the bowels to be very much relaxed. 



My system in watering horses is to let them drink what 

 they want, and never allow them to go too long between 

 the periods of drinking. Suppose a person has two horses, 

 and as a rule they drink about the same quantity of 

 water, one of them is allowed to have as much as it 

 likes, and the other has the pail taken away from it before 

 it has had sufficient, the owner will find that the one which 

 has enough and to spare will not drink anything like so 

 much in a week as the other one which has barely sufficient. 

 Some may ask, " Why is this ? " It is easily answered 

 in a few words. A horse is a very intelligent animal, and 

 when it is drinking, if it is accustomed to have the pail 

 taken away before it has had sufficient, it will drink much 

 faster and try and keep its head in the water as long as 

 possible, so as to prevent the attendant taking the pail 

 away. When I am going on a long journey with a horse, 

 no matter whether it is hot or cold, I try it with 

 water every eight or twelve miles, and always allow the 

 animal to drink as much as it wants. 



