300 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
But here we are at the watering trough, and despite 
my implied promise, I shall button-hole the reader 
for a moment more before we leave the main stable. 
Horses require water that is pure and soft. Many 
well-bred nags will not drink from a pail in which 
another animal has already had his nose. The Arabs 
regard pure water as of the highest importance ; 
and they do not hesitate to risk their lives, as by 
leaving camp at night when the enemy is near, in 
order to water their horses at some fresh spring of 
which they have knowledge. This is the form in 
which they describe a man of thoroughly bad and 
contemptible character : — 
“ His horse drinks troubled water, 
And his covering is full of holes.” 
The oftener a horse drinks in the course of the 
day, the less he will drink. Therefore, the best plan 
is to have water always before him at his meals. It 
was found by experiment at the Duke of Beaufort’s 
stables, that under this, the modern system, a horse 
drank only five gallons, whereas, when watered but 
twice during the day, he drank eight gallons.’ Of 
course, if the comparison had been made with three 
instead of two waterings a day, the discrepancy would 
not have been so great. At Badminton, I believe, 
slate troughs are used for this purpose. A better 
plan, perhaps would be to have pail-holders fixed 
alongside the grain mangers. Then a pail of fresh 
water could be put in whenever the horse was fed. 
1 From this it seems necessary to infer that formerly at Bad- 
mington horses were watered but twice a day, although it is 
difficulé to believe that so preposterous a system was practised. 
