140 THE POCKET AND THE STUD. 



where we are not certain of the nature of the 

 water ; a few handfuls stirred in will render hard 

 water safe and innocuous, even to delicate horse?. 

 Bran, properly given before physic, will, in (I 

 may say) all cases, prevent gripes, if the physic 

 be good ; but not if merely given as grooms often 

 give it, namely, for twelve hours only before the 

 ball is given. I always give it for two days and 

 nights prior to this ; some corn with it the first 

 day, but none the last : in this case the horse is 

 half physicked before the ball is administered ; and 

 five drams of good aloes will go as far as seven or 

 eight if otherwise treated, and for many horses is 

 quite enough, and six I should say enough for any 

 ordinary horse, if properly prepared. I have 

 heard many persons say a horse does not recover 

 from a dose of physic for some days ; in such a 

 case it is not so much the evacuation that he does 

 not recover from, but the having really suffered 

 while the medicine was in operation, which he 

 certainly w^ill have done, and severely too, if not 

 properly mashed prior to taking it. So far fron 

 a horse being depressed by medicine, if properly 

 given (and lie wanted it), he will feel himself the 

 lighter and more cheerful after its proper opera- 

 tion : in short, bran is of far greater importance 

 than is often given credit for being ; for if corn 

 puts a horse in vigour, bran keeps him in health, 

 and, by preventing disease, plnys its full part 



