360 THE HORSE. 



larly by its coldness in summer, and when it is many degrees below the 

 temperature of the atmosphere. The water in the brook and the pond 

 being- warmed by long exposure to the air, as well as having become 

 soft, the horse drinks freely of it without danger. 



If the horse were watered three times a day, and especially in summer, 

 he would often be saved from the sad torture of thirst, and from many a 

 disease. Whoever has observed the eagerness with which the over- 

 worked horse, hot and tired, plunges his muzzle into the pail, and the 

 difficulty of stopping him until he has drained the last drop, may Ibrm 

 some idea of what he had previously suffered, and will not wonder 

 at the violent spasms, and inflammation, and sudden death, that often 

 result. 



There is a prejudice in the minds of many people against the horse 

 being fairly supplied with water. They think that it injures his wind, and 

 disables him for quick and hard work. If he is galloped, as he too often 

 is, immediately after drinking, his wind may be irreparably injured ; but 

 if he were oftener suffered to satiate his thirst at the intervals of rest, he 

 would be happier and better. It is a fact unsuspected by those who have 

 not carefully observed the horse, that if he has frequent access to water 

 lie will not drink so much in the course of the day, as another who, to cool 

 his parched mouth, swallows as fast as he can, and knows not when to stop. 



On a journey a horse should be liberally supplied with water. When 

 he is a little cooled, two or three quarts of water may be given to him, and 

 after that his feed. Before he has finished his corn two or three quarts 

 more may be offered. He will take no harm if this be repeated three or 

 four times during a long and hot day. 



It is a judicious rule with travellers, that when a horse begins to refuse 

 his food, he should be pushed no farther that day. It may, however, be 

 worth while to try whether this may not proceed from thirst, as much as 

 from exhaustion, for in many instances his appetite and his spirits will 

 return soon after he has partaken of the refreshing draught. 



Management of the Feet. — This is the only division of stable 

 management that remains to be considered, and one sadly neglected by the 

 carter and groom. The feet should be carefully examined every morning : 

 for the shoes may be loose, and the horse would have been stopped in the 

 middle of his work ; or the clenches may be raised, and endanger the 

 wounding of his legs; or the shoe may begin to press upon the sole or 

 the heel, and bruise of the sole, or corn, may be the result ; and, the horse 

 having stood so long in the stable, every little increase of heat in the foot, 

 or lameness, will be more readily detected, and serious disease may pro- 

 bably be prevented. 



When the horse comes in at night, and after the harness has been taken 

 off and stowed away, the heels should be well brushed out. Hand-rubbing 

 will be preferable to washing, especially in the agricultural horse, whose 

 heels, covered with long hair, can scarcely be dried again. If the dirt be 

 suffered to accumulate in that long hair, the heels will become sore, and 

 grease will follow ; and if the heels are washed, and particularly during 

 the winter, grease will result from the coldness occasioned by the slow 

 evaporation of the moisture. The feet should be stopped— even the 

 feet of the farmer's horse, if he remains in the stable. No clay stopping 

 should be used, for it will get hard and press upon the sole : cowdung 

 is the best stopping to preserve the feet cool and elastic ; but before tlie 

 stopping is applied, the picker must be run round the whole of the foot, 

 between the shoe and the sole, to detect any stone which may have in- 



