HOKSES AND HOUNDS. 37 



In large and roomy stables, where the ventilation is good, a 

 large bucket of water may be left at the side of the manger, or 

 a small cistern made of slate always kept three parts full, for 

 the horse to drink when so inclined ; but water should not be 

 kept in hot and close stables for the purpose that some grooms 

 use it — viz., to take the chill off. We all know that hard spring 

 water is not so good for horses as soft river water ; but when 

 the latter cannot be had, spring or well water may be put into 

 a large cask or tub, with a good piece or two of chalk, or a 

 lump of hard lime, and a small bowlful of this mixture put into 

 a bucket of cold water; or the chill may be taken off by 

 pouring some boiling water into the bucket. Nothing can be 

 more absurd or injurious than limiting the allowance of water, 

 a very common practice with ignorant grooms, which not only 

 makes horses continually craving for it, but is also productive 

 of fever and other complaints. In racing establishments, water 

 is offered to the horses two or three times in a day, and it ought 

 to strike every man of common sense that water is as necessary 

 to a horse as food, particularly when so much evaporation goes 

 on, as with racers and hunters. After severe exercise, the chill 

 should be always taken off the water before given, for which 

 purpose a quart of boiling water put into two gallons of cold 

 will be found sufficient. Few men would, I should think, be 

 simple enough to give any horse before galloping him, a quan- 

 tity of water ; but such, I have heard, is the practice with some, 

 and this is one way of taking the chill off with a vengeance. 

 On hunting mornings many grooms give their horses no water 

 at all ; an ignorant and cruel practice, and productive of much 

 injury to the animal. When horses are properly attended to, 

 and at reasonable hours, the stable being opened at five in the 

 morning, no difference need be made in the allowance of water, 

 but where the stable is visited at seven o'clock instead of five 

 o'clock, which is more likely to be the case in small establish- 

 ments, and when the master himself is not an early riser, a 

 bucket of water may be too much, but two gallons can never do 

 harm. A certain quantity is indispensably necessary for the 

 proper mastication of the food, and without this the horse will 

 be in a state of fever the whole day. I have known horses 

 nearly killed by this idle and ignorant plan of giving them no 

 water on hunting mornings, the bowels having become so con- 

 stipated at the end of the day as to require the assistance of the 

 veterinary surgeon the next morning. I should like to set these 

 would-be knowing gentlemen down to their breakfast without 

 their cup of tea or coffee, and a piece of dry bread only to 

 mumble ! They would, if treated in this manner, have perhaps 



