ON FOOT) AND WATER. 
loG 
by editors of newspapers extracting peissages from writers on sub¬ 
jects so important as that of the health and life of very valuable 
animals, without ascertaining on what authority the advice con¬ 
tained therein is offered. A few swallows of water w'ere given to 
the gig-horse of a friend of mine immediately on being taken out of 
his harness, which produced instant death and the loss of seventy 
guineas. He was the property of the late George Kenyon, Esq., 
first cousin to the Honourable Thomas Kenyon, of well known 
coaching fame. I am aware that some countenance is given to the 
ad libitum system of watering horses by some of your profession; 
but may I be pardoned in saying, that however plausible the theory, 
the practice must have told against it, forasmuch as, notwithstanding 
it has for so many years been advocated, it is nevertheless neg¬ 
lected. I do not think it exists in a dozen hunting studs in Great 
Britain, and we know it is out of the question in training stables. 
Horses on the continent are sadlv over-dosed with water; and what 
is the result ] Their bellies are greatly distended; their flesh is 
loose and flabby; and before they have travelled three miles, they 
have thrown away that which ought to remain to their nourishment 
and support. Our knowledge of natural philosophy consists in and 
is derived from observation; here there is no uncertainty or con¬ 
jecture ; all is positive truth. 
Touching food, I agree with Mr. Ernes on the subject of bran 
mashes. I alwavs ordered them to be made two or three hours 
•/ ^ 
before being used, wdth care as to the water being in a boiling 
state ; but what an inexhaustible subject would the food of horses 
afford, if we were to go back to very early days! Setting aside 
the fable of those of Diomedes being fed with human flesh, and of 
their roval owner himself being at last devoured bv the stud of 
Hercules, as well as Shakespeare’s conceit that they eat each 
other, I was not far from the mark, when I said they might 
be brought to eat any thing, from a beef steak to turtle soup. At 
all events, we have it on undeniable authority (^Mosheim’s Eccle- 
iastical History) that one Theophylact, Patriarch of Alexandria, in 
the tenth century, fed his hunting horses—of which he had a stud 
which would make that of the best of the Meltonians of the present 
dav look very small—on pig-nuts, pistachios, dates, dried grapes, 
and figs steeped in the most exquisite wines, to all of which he added 
the richest perfumes ! It is my opinion, however, that it is only 
witliin the last fifty years, or less, that a right system of feeding 
horses has been practised ; that it is practised by none but English¬ 
men, or by persons under their instruction; and that it is best 
understood and practised by experienced trainers of race-horses. 
The mention of by-gone times, in reference to horses and their 
management, leads me to the notice so frequently taken of the 
