130 HOW TO FEED A HORSE. 



actually drinks less, on the whole, when he has it ever be- 

 fore him ; and that from never becoming intensely thirsty, he 

 is never tempted to drink to excess ; and the argument is 

 certainly good. The difficulty lies in this, that the horse is 

 particularly delicate about what he drinks, and cannot en- 

 dure tepid, stale, or impure water; and that, if water be 

 supplied constantly, in the stable, with ninety-nine grooms 

 out of a hundred, it will be allowed to stand in the 

 vessel, week in and week out, occasionally filled up, but 

 never drawn off or thoroughly cleansed until it is full of 

 impurities of all kinds impregnated with ammonia from 

 the atmosphere, and alike unfit and unwholesome for the 

 animal to drink. 



When metallic mangers can be contrived, having a sup- 

 ply pipe feeding them with constantly running, aerated 

 water, and an escape pipe, which, while they shall be 

 constantly full, shall never allow them to overflow, no 

 plan can be adopted equal to this — as the water, beside 

 supplying the animals with their beverage, will have an 

 admirable effect in purifying, and cooling the heated at- 

 mosphere of the stables ; but, otherwise, it will be hardly 

 practicable, or desirable, to keep water constantly before 

 horses in their stalls or boxes. 



When horses are working on the road, they should be 

 watered, cleaned and fed, very early, at least two hours 

 before it is intended to start them; they should have 

 merely a lock of hay, to play with, while being dressed, 

 and should be then fed with full six quarts of oats. If 

 they be, at all, delicate feeders, it will often succeed to 

 offer them two quarts at a time, and, when that is finished, 

 to refill the mangers. Sometimes, by partially harness- 

 ing a horse, particularly if he be a cunning old stager, he 

 will be inclined to go to work as hard at his feed as he 

 can, for fear of losing what is set before him. For the 



