82 DRIVING. 



are not a few owners who like to be their own stud grooms, and 

 to these we should say elbow grease is the best receipt we can 

 give for having horses in good condition. Nothing is so healthy 

 for a horse, nothing makes him look so well and feel so well, as 

 being thoroughly well strapped every day ; and if a gentleman 

 can get men to do that conscientiously and take pride in it, he 

 will seldom find it necessary to send for a veterinary surgeon. 



We are very great advocates for allowing all horses, of every 

 sort and description, to have water standing in their stable or box. 

 After over forty years' experience, we can say that we have found 

 the benefit to the horse's health and to his wind to be some- 

 thing extraordinary. Horses very seldom go roarers when they 

 can put their noses into their trough and take a couple of mouth- 

 fuls when they like, and thus they often moisten their corn in 

 the manger. It stands to reason, and as a matter of fact we 

 have absolutely proved, that a horse when left to his own instinct 

 drinks about five gallons of water a day ; and if he takes it in 

 very small sips, rarely or never drinking more than a small tea- 

 cupful at a time, it is much less likely to make him a bad roarer 

 than if he fills his stomach twice a day, drinking off, as may be 

 said at one swig, four gallons each time. We have practically 

 proved the difference between the quantity of liquid consumed 

 by a horse which is watered twice a day and one which has water 

 constantly with him ; the former drinks eight gallons and the 

 latter only five. We consider the continuous supply quite as im- 

 portant for coach-horses as it is for hunters and hacks. In our 

 own experience of a large establishment, the increase in venti- 

 lation and decrease in the amount of water consumed by the 

 horses have vastly reduced the number of roarers. Forty years 

 ago, in a stable where there were always eighty to one hundred 

 horses in hard work, half of them, and sometimes more, were 

 roarers ; in the same establishment now, with about the same 

 number of horses, there have not been for many years more 

 than two or three roarers at a time, and we attribute the change 

 entirely to the method of watering, and the greater amount of 

 fresh air in the stables. 



