144 WATERING HORSES. 



constantly employed in breaking the ice, so that the water 

 supply may not be stopped. In India, tonga (a kind of 

 curricle) and ecka (a small, two-wheeled trap) ponies, which 

 average about 13 h. I in. in height, frequently travel 50 or 60 

 miles in a day over unmetalled roads during the hottest 

 weather, when the noontide heat often exceeds 110 F. in the 

 shade. Such performances can be accomplished only by 

 watering the ponies about every hour ; the system pursued 

 being to give them at each bait I to 2 Ib. of barley meal or 

 Indian corn meal in a couple of quarts of water. Persons who 

 have had to ride long distances in hot countries are aware of 

 the advisability, during a journey, of allowing their mounts to 

 drink frequently from any good water near which they may 

 pass, even when the horse is bathed in perspiration. I have 

 always found out hunting, especially on a long day, that my 

 mount received great benefit from being allowed to drink, when 

 he was thirsty, at any convenient watering place. We should 

 remember that the longer a horse has been without food, the 

 less likely is water to do him harm. 



During many years, when I was training horses in India, I 

 had the best results from giving them half a bucket of water 

 immediately after their gallops ; and as much water as they 

 cared to drink, as soon as they returned to their stable. This 

 plan of watering immediately after a training gallop or race, 

 which I was the first to put into practice and write about in 

 India, is now generally adopted by persons who train horses in 

 that country. The very time above all others at which a 

 horse requires a liberal drink of water, is when he is heated 

 an J exhausted by hard work ; for not only is the body then in 

 the greatest need of water, but the danger of chill from drink- 

 ing it is less than when the horse has become cool, because the 

 circulation of the absorbent blood-vessels is more active. If 

 the animal be allowed to cool down without getting water, his 

 blood will recover its fluidity at the expense of the tissues. It 



