WATERING HORSES.

Northland Age, Volume VI, Issue 40, 30 May 1910, Page 8

WATERING HORSES.

Very diverse views are heW afl to the proper time at which horses should be allowed to drink—whether it* before or after feeding. The most natural plan is to always have water accessible to the animal. If: this is done, as much water will be i taken as is required, and no more, and it will be taken when required' and at no other time. The opinion that water should be given only in limited quantities—limited, too, according to the judgment of man—is an error. Horses iD health seldom or never take more than they require. It is conceivable that after long enforced abstinence, as after profuse perspiration, they require—and take —more than is good for them at one drinking ; a quantity indeed which will, by its volume of coldness, produce stomach or intestinal spasm (colic). In such circumstances it if advisable to interrupt the drinking ] for a time, or to take the “ chill ” I off the water by warming it slightly, or by adding a little warm water to it.

It is well that water should be withheld for some time prior to the imposing of violent exercise or work. Racehorses, for example, shounld not be allowed water in e considerable quantity during the three or four hours preceding a race. Perhaps, the only other time when it is advisable to allow a long drink, if it is desired by the animal, is immediately after feeding, when tbe fluid, in passing rapidly through the stomach towards its natural receptacle (the caecum or blind gut) is likely to carry with it into the small intestines some of the stomach contents which are still crude and harsh, and not in a sufficiently digested state to pass on, and which, therefore, may irritate the mucus lining of the bowels to an extent sufficient to set up colic, or evec inflammation of the bowels (enteritis). For similar reasons, if watei is not kept continuously within reach, in which case, as previouslj stated, as much as will do harm will never be taken, the watering should always be done before feed ing.

The necessity that drinking watei for animals should be pure and wholesome is obvious. On farms where the water supply consists only of w%ter-holes, which becomes foul and fetid from pollution by animal discharges, water-troughs supplied by windmill should be provided. The objection is sometimes raised that where water holes and swampy patches are numerous, it is of no use providing drinking-troughs, as horses will not make use of them; but it will be found on trial that horses will always go naturally to clean water. In point of fact, they may be frequently observed to refuse or drink but sparingly of contaminated water. They may be seen to go to a foul and slimy watery hole, stir the water by wading, then smell it, and drink a little or wade out without drinking at all. That their thirst is not assuaged is evidenced by the fact that they may be seen to return and repeat the performance time and again.—S. S. Cameron, in “Agricultural Journal oi Victoria.”