THE HORSE. Ill 



dulged more often. Horses in the stable at hard meat 

 should be regularly watered twice a day, and if par- 

 ticularly greedy of drink, three times, the allowance 

 each time, being moderate. Every horseman is aware 

 of the preference due to soft water, and the ill effects 

 consequent on a change to hard water, more especially 

 to the race horse and hunter. The old grooms carried 

 the custom to excess, of exercising the horse imme- 

 diately after taking his water. Sudden quick motion 

 in that circumstance, must be painful, and may be 

 injurious to the animal ; a walk, or at most, a jog 

 trot, I judge to be preferable, since I always found it 

 sufficient. On watering in the stable in cold weather, 

 afterwards brushing or hard whisping is the proper 

 substitute for exercise. I have little doubt that stint- 

 ing from due quantities of water, horses naturally of 

 a retentive habit, and constantly high fed in the 

 stable, with dry and substantial provender, has often 

 proved the remote though unsuspected cause of those 

 violent and inflammatory cholics which have proved 

 fatal to such numbers. 



Green food and roots in their season, make 

 part of the diet of the English stable, with every 

 description of the horse, from the racer to the cart 

 horse ; and their use forms an indispensable part of 

 our regular dietetic stable system. Green food, how- 

 ever, of every species, should be given as fresh cut 

 as possible, since, if stored or kept, it will absorb 

 moisture, heat, and become mouldy ; in which state, 

 instead of proving beneficial, it will gripe and scour 

 the animals, pall their appetites, and weaken their 

 stomachs ; lucerne, or fine meadow grass, are the 



