MANAGEMENT OF LIGHT HORSES. LJl 



quenched his thirst. Horses should always be watered before 

 they are fed, as owing to their internal construction there is 

 some danger of working some of the oats into the gut if the 

 process be reversed. 



The best possible arrangement is to let horses have water 

 always before them. The receptacle containing it can easily 

 be fitted with a cover ; and it will be found that horses so 

 supplied rarely take more than a sip or two at a time, and so 

 are never unfit for moderate work at a moment's notice. 

 The cover can be put on the trough before a horse goes out 

 hunting, and when he returns hot and tired; but at other 

 times the horse can be left to his own devices, and he will 

 take no harm. 



The idea that a horse must subsist during the hunting 

 season on dry stimulating food with the minimum of water 

 has no consideration, scientific or otherwise, to support it, and 

 a hunter can no more be at his best if stinted of water than 

 he can on a short allowance of oats. Unless solid and 

 liquid are consumed in due proportion mischief is sure to 

 result, and when too little water is given feverish symptoms 

 are at once engendered, and doses of physic are required. Any 

 groom can, if he choose, test for himself whether it is advis- 

 able to start a horse for a long and heavy day's work either 

 without any water at all or with an insufficient allowance. 

 Foot beagles are now to be found in nearly every country, 

 and let a groom ask for a day off, and have a day's running 

 with them, abjuring all liquid for his breakfast. If he will 

 also carry out another fad, viz., not to allow hunters to take 

 anything out of their own stables, he will be in a position to 

 form some opinion as to the merits of the system. Seldom is 

 the groom found to refuse a proffered glass of beer, be the 

 occasion what it may ; yet many are found to subject their 

 horses to a thirst which they themselves would not endure for 

 five minutes. 



Grooming 'is a very important part of stable management, 

 since it is to the skin of the horse what washing is to the 



