Dirty Oats.—This can be remedied by winnowing.
Hay.—There is a great variety of grasses. The best hay contains a large proportion of the best of these, along with clover and other good herbage, and only a small proportion of the inferior kinds, whilst in the inferior kinds of hay good herbage is nearly entirely wanting, and the inferior grasses predominate.
The characteristics of good hay are green color combined with a delicate smell and taste, a presence of flowers in their natural colors, and of a variety of grasses and good herbage (not weeds), and clover of moderate fineness, crispness, and hardness.
Straw must be wheat, oats, or rye straw; barley induces disease of the skin. It ought to be long and strong. Horses are inclined to eat wheat straw when new.
WATERING.
Horses must be watered quietly, and without confusion; the manner in which this duty is performed is a good test of the discipline of a mounted command.
Horses are to be led or ridden at a walk to and from water, depending upon its distance from the stable. At the drinking-place no horse should be hurried or have his head jerked up from the water.
If a stream is used for watering horses from the bank, the level of the water must not be more than 3 or 4 inches below the latter; and if the water is very shallow dams should be constructed to deepen it, as animals drink more rapidly when water is at least 6 inches deep. Mules should be watered higher up stream than horses. When animals will not drink from a stream, they will frequently do so from a bucket with a handful of grass on the water.
In the field or on the march the watering is from the most convenient running water; in garrison it is usually from troughs. In warm weather water drawn from a cold well or spring before being used should stand long enough for the chill to pass off.