Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1869 — Watering Horses. [ARTICLE]

Watering Horses.

Horses should never be kept so long without water that they will drink largely when they get it. Give it to them often, and they will never injure themselves with it. Nothing is more common than to hitch a team to the plow, and make them work half a day without a drop. What man would submit to such treatment ? If the plow is started at seven in the morning, water should be given again before ten; and again in the afternoon by four o’clock. Even if half an hour is thus consumed, more work will be done in a day. The objection that horses on the road should not be “ loaded with water,” is not valid. A horse weighing 1,21)0 pounds will not be much encumbered additionally by 20 poundu of water, while the- distension will give him additional strength. Every farmer knows that when he himself undertakes to lift a large log or heavy stone, he can do more by first inflating himself with air, and not unfrequently he loses a button or two from his pantaloons in the operation. Some degree of inflation by water will add to a horse’s strengui in a similar manner. In driving a horse on the road at a natural gait of nine or ten miles an hour, I have frequently had occasion to observe that he was laboring with perspiration until I let him drink freely, when he ceased to sweat and evidently traveled more freely. Don’t be afraid to give your horses water; the danger is in making them abstain too long—in which case, care is needed. — Country Gentleman.