such that he cannot be put off to eat any and everything that comes along, but, on the contrary, he must have about the same bill of fare and it must be served in the same way, which is always hot — that is, the food for these ponies is always boiled and given to them just as hot as they can eat it. Beans take the place of corn and oats. They are boiled with cut millet or rice straw, bean hulls, and sometimes chaff. The water in which the food is boiled is given to the pony to drink. The feeding is started with the hot water, and the cooked food is given later, though while still as hot as can be eaten. It is a strange fact that these ponies rarely ever drink cold water. It is indeed strange to see them on a hot day wade right across a stream of clear, cold water and never stop to drink; but they know too well that their drivers will not allow it, and so they patiently wait till they reach the inn, where they will be given all the hot water they can drink.
The inns are usually kept by men who have been trained to the business from early life and are well up in all the tricks of the trade. They are experts in the art of diminishing the measure of beans that go into the pot, while the chaff and water are increased to make it appear that the pony will have a hard time to dispose of so large a feed. There are some good stories told as to how the horsemen have to be on the lookout all the time to see that the pony does not get too few beans to the quantity of water that is given him at a feeding.
