STABLE MANAGEMENT 218 



takes more than a few swallows at a time ; nor does it, as 

 a rule, imbibe so much liquid in the twenty-four hours 

 as when water is only supplied in a bucket twice or thrice 

 a day. Some animals also take strange fancies when the 

 water is always there, and one horse in the writer's pos- 

 session would never begin to eat his corn until he had set 

 it all floating in water, which he used to swill out of the 

 water-trough into the adjoining manger with repeated 

 sweeps of his muzzle ; whilst another, a mare, was accus- 

 tomed to take large mouthfuls of corn and drop it into 

 the water-trough, and then to pick it out again and munch 

 it at leisure, in evident enjoyment. The small amount 

 of fluid thus taken never did any harm, nor caused any 

 trouble, so the animals were allowed to gratify their 

 fancies as often as they pleased. 



The next question the new-fledged owner must ask him- 

 self is whether the water should be warmed or cold ; and 

 what kind should be given — stored up rain-water, or from a 

 pond, or water from a well or tap. The answer to the first 

 is that the water should have the chill off if given to a horse 

 in a state of rest, as in a stable, or when very tired. It 

 should be borne in mind that there is more risk in giving very 

 cold water to horses in such conditions than when the 

 circulation is still excited from exercise, the extra heat 

 apparently raising the temperature of the water to that of 

 the body, though the risk of a chill is still present. Even 

 when engaged in hunting it does no harm if a horse is 

 allowed to just wash his mouth out from any pond which 

 may be handy, although it may be almost at the point of 

 freezing, but the amount allowed must be very limited, and 

 the writer for quite forty years has never permitted an 

 animal under such circumstances to drink more than half a 

 dozen swallows, carefully counted. As no evil results have 

 followed in any single instance with this strictly limited 

 regime, and the relief to the horse is very great, especially 

 in the case of animals who suffer from excessive secretion 

 of saliva, which after severe exertion, is apt to become very 

 saline, the practice of allowing a horse to wash his mouth 

 out can with confidence be recommended. A valuable hint 



