72 HOESE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA. 



within an incredibly brief period." The obvious lesson 

 these considerations teach us is, that we should not be 

 chary in allowing a horse to drink when he wants to do 

 so, except indeed after feeding. 



One of the popular errors about watering horses is, 

 that they should be stinted of water for several hours 

 before doing fast work, on the plea that it affects their 

 wind. As the water which becomes part and parcel of 

 the blood, cannot by any possibility impede the organs 

 of breathing, it follows that its unabsorbed portion 

 alone can affect them ; but we have just seen that the 

 whole of the water is taken up with extreme rapidity, 

 so that, after a short time, there is none left in the 

 stomach or intestines to cause any impediment. On 

 the contrary, stinting a horse with water will directly 

 affect his wind, for the blood will then gradually become 

 thickened, and, if the animal be put to violent exertion, 

 will fail to circulate through the lungs with requisite 

 freedom ; besides that, the action of the heart will 

 become impeded, and the nutrition of the system more 

 or less arrested. 



If a horse has been deprived of water for a consider- 

 able time, we should exercise some caution in watering 

 him, lest he may drink a larger quantity than can 

 readily be taken up ; for the unabsorbed portion especi- 

 ally if the fluid be given cold may cause serious 

 derangement. When a horse is heated by exercise, his 

 system will absorb water far more readily than when 

 he is cool ; hence, under the former condition, there is 

 far less risk in giving a liberal supply, than under the 

 latter, always supposing that the water is not very 

 cold : in which case, there would be danger of injury 



