WATER. 43 



"Watee. — Water is am article of diet, as necessary to the 

 health of the body as oxygen is to the blood. Of all the 

 articles of diet enumerated as necessary to a horse, perhaps the 

 most important is water. This the reader wUl at once admit, 

 when he is informed that, in respect of its component parts, 

 three-fourths of the entire body of a horse are simply water. 

 Without a sufficiency of water the animal cannot be maintained 

 in a state of health. He will be dull, lose flesh rapidly, and 

 become incapable of feeding. Hay and corn, and indeed any 

 of the ordinary kinds of food, would prove useless unless a 

 sufficiency of water be also allowed. It is most important 

 then that the water should be in abundance, and of the most 

 suitable kind. Pure soft water is the best for horses. Hard 

 water is liable to produce coUc. This I have witnessed over 

 and over again. Water which contains earthy and mineralized 

 substances in solution (and most kinds of hard water do) is 

 apt to produce calculous deposits within the intestines of those 

 animals regularly drinking it. A similar effect will also occur 

 in the case of horses regularly in the habit of drinking muddy 

 water. No better test to determine the comparative softness 

 or hardness of water can be applied than a little soap. Hard 

 water curdles soap ; but with soft water, soap combines readily 

 without flake or precipitate of any kind. 



The quantity of water necessary to allow a horse is, of 

 course, what the animal will drink, I mean as a general rule ; 

 but it is not at aU times a good plan to allow this. Horses 

 perspiring much from severe labour in the hot sun would, if 

 allowed, frequently drink an injurious quantity of cold water. 

 Horses when about to be used for the chase should have 

 very little water given to them for some hours before being 

 mounted. A hunter with a belly full of water in the hunting 

 field, would be an annoyance both to the rider and to himself. 



