110 



THE HORSE. 



straw, it is the common food of the horse in countries 

 and on soils, either not grassy like ours, or arid during 

 the summer from the solar heat. The coarser kinds 

 of hay are too filling and burdensome to the saddle 

 horse, which has to move quick, and must have no 

 impediment in the way of the active functions of his 

 lungs. But in the case of a horse that is washy, as 

 it is styled, and throws off his excrements too quickly, 

 a small quantity of clover, lucerne or melilot hay, 

 intermixed with the meadow, may be beneficial ; with 

 such horses, however, light work and short journeys 

 are most convenient. 



I am not now so much among grooms as formerly, 

 but I remember that the old grooms, though so fond 

 of bub themselves, were dreadfully alarmed lest their 

 horses should be given to drinking; looking upon 

 them as full brothers in blood to sheep and rabbits, 

 and that water was at best, a necessary evil. Now 

 though I have had all sorts and descriptions of 

 horses, lame, blind, broken winded, glandered — I 

 never stinted a horse of his water in my life, yet never 

 experienced any ill consequences from such license. 

 To the general notion, that thick or broken winded 

 horses should be kept from drink, is to be attributed 

 their well known greediness of it ; and after all, per- 

 haps no horses have greater need of it ; excess in the 

 case is clearly another thing ; every one knows that 

 a horse in a state of heat and perspiration must not 

 be indulged with quantities of cold or of any water ; 

 the same rule holds previously to any great exertion ; 

 and should the animal be habitually too greedy of 

 drink, he should be restricted in quantity, and in- 



