144 THE HORSE : ITS KEEP AND MANAGEMENT. 



o'clock in the evening, and by nine o'clock the grass 

 is quite wet. This can be tested by a person walking 

 through the fields, he will soon find his boots wet through. 

 Now dew is more penetrating than ordinary water, and 

 when the horse is walking about all night, if the grass is 

 fairly long, not only the feet but the lower joints of the 

 legs also get wet. Very often the dew is not off the 

 grass till nine in the morning unless the sun happens to 

 be very warm indeed. The hotter the weather is the 

 more dew we get. The grass is usually wet fourteen 

 hours out of the twenty-four. It is not always wise to 

 sell horses when they go wrong in the legs or have fever 

 in the feet. If they are put under the treatment I have 

 described, many of them become as sound in the legs as 

 a young horse at four years old. Only within a few days 

 of my penning these lines, I heard of a horse dealer 

 who bought a horse for ^19, and after he had put the 

 animal in water in the way mentioned here for three 

 months he sold him for one hundred guineas. 



Of course those who live near the sea can stand the 

 animals in the salt water, as that is a fine thing for horses, 

 only it is rather difficult to tie them up, and another thing 

 they cannot be left there for any length of time, because 

 of the tide ebbing and flowing. I find ordinary water 

 answers almost the same purpose, as it is more convenient. 

 When they can stand in a pond or stream which is in a 

 meadow, it is not only a question of the animal being 

 benefited by standing in the water, but the dew from the 

 grass is also very helpful to them, and the beautiful 



