 |
“A Polish soldier ‘bonding’ with his horse, 1980-1990”,
posted by u/welcometothezone, HERE.
I have never gone horse trekking and I am not a horse
person, but I do know how to ride1. I hope that this article will help us better
understand our ancestors, whose every journey was by horseback – Author’s note.
This
article was born from a conversation with my wife about a Facebook post she
received. The post included the picture
above and a quote, which was attributed to Saint Seraphim of Sarov, and began
with “Drink water from the spring where horses drink. The horse will never drink bad water”
2.
Many
times, modern people, living in developed countries, take pure, disinfected
water for granted. But once you venture
away from modern municipal water supplies, or if there is a disaster and these
systems are offline, you will have to find pure water or disinfect the water
yourself to kill all of the dangerous bacteria, viruses, protozoa and parasites
living in it, before you can drink it or cook with it.
Saint
Seraphim of Sarov, who died in 1833, was a monk, ascetic, mystic and hermit who
lived in the Russian wilderness, and his quote is an interesting quote, but is
it true or is it false: did he simply mean that to live as one with God, you
had to live a natural life and trust in God, as did the animals of the forest? If Saint Seraphim of Sarov’s quote about
horses being able to detect pure water is true, and not just an allegory on how
to live a natural godly life, then this would be an important fact for modern
people and reenactors of the 18th, 19th and early 20th
centuries to know. If it isn’t true,
then how would people who lived during the 18th, 19th and
early 20th centuries have killed the bacteria, viruses, parasites,
and dangerous protozoa that lived in their water? And what should we moderns, do today to
disinfect our water, when we are uncertain if it is pure or not?
I
didn’t know if it was true or not about horses and pure water, so I did what I
always do, and did some research. In
keeping with Saint Seraphim of Sarov’s quote being from the early 19th
century, I have only used sources that would have been available during the 18th,
19th and early 20th centuries: here is what I found.
 |
A quote from the Field Artillery Manual, 1928,
page XXXII, 16
Horses
are notoriously sensitive animals and according to Ellie Fraser, writing in Horse Family Magazine, “Horses have a very
good sense of smell and taste and will refuse to drink – even to the point of
dehydration – if their water is polluted, stagnant, or even if their water
supply changes abruptly”3.
If this is true, then surely horses could be used to detect good and bad
water?
However,
if horses are so discriminating, why then do the early sources consistently
state that horses would drink marshy, muddy, bad, or other dirty water, and, in
fact, seemed to prefer it to clean spring water?
 |
An excerpt from The Sportsman’s Dictionary,
1735, section DRA, page 4.
 |
An excerpt from A Treatise on Cattle, 1776, page 77 to 78.
In
fact, many of these early authors noted that horses preferred drinking pond-water
to well-water, even though pond water might be full of life, both plant and
animal, or possibly, other nasty things.
 |
An excerpt from “The Water We Consume”, The
Farmer’s Magazine, 1871, page 283.
Cuthbert W. Johnson,
who wrote “The Water We Consume”, in 1871, stated that
the reason why horses prefer pond, brook or river-water, in that order, over
well-water, is that pond, brook, or river-water is a softer water than what is
obtained from a well: well-water could be a hard water, full of dissolved minerals. Also, per Mr. Johnson, horses do not prefer
overly cold water and well-water is usually a constant cold temperature.
So,
according to Mr. Johnson, horses can sense mineral content in water, but does
that mean that they can tell if water is free of germs and parasites?
 |
A quote from the Field Artillery Manual, 1928,
page XXXIII, 16-18
 |
An illustration from the Field
Artillery Manual, 1928, page XXX, 4-5
It
doesn’t appear that horses can tell if water is free of germs and parasites,
since they prefer, and drink, the soft waters found in farm-ponds and brooks,
which might be muddy, cloudy, thick, and dirty!
Also, ponds, brooks, rivers and even wells, given the state of
sanitation in the 18th, 19th and early 20th
centuries, were notoriously impure, and given a horses liking for soft pond
water, I don’t think that Saint Seraphim of Sarov’s quote is true. Most likely he was making a statement about
living a natural life, trusting to God, like the animals of the forest do.
So,
if you are thirsty, go ahead and drink water from the spring where horses drink,
the water should be soft, just disinfect it first!
 |
An excerpt from the Field Artillery Manual,
1928, page XXXIII, 16-18
In
the wilderness, if you are not positive that the water is pure, and who can be 100%
positive, and you can disinfect it, then disinfect it4!
Today,
we have chemicals, UV lights and advanced filters that can kill or remove
dangerous bacteria, viruses, and parasitic protozoa from our water, however our
ancestors of the 18th, 19th or early 20th
centuries had far fewer choices.
During
the 18th and 19th centuries, boiling their drinking water
was the only effective way our ancestors had of disinfecting their drinking water,
although other methods were tried.
 |
An excerpt from A Mental Museum, for the Rising
Generation, by Jesse Torrey, Jun.; 1829, page 199-200. The United States Environmental Protection Agency
does not list vinegar as a water treatment that they consider acceptable5.
 |
An excerpt from Counsel for Emigrants, and
Interesting Information from Numerous Sources, 1834, pages 79-80. According to the United States Center for
Disease Control and Prevention, to kill viruses and bacteria, the concentration
of ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol, the type of alcohol that we drink, has
to be between 60% to 90%, which leaves very little room for the water6.
During
the early parts of the 20th century both boiling and using calcium
hypochlorite, a chlorine product, were available to our ancestors7.
 |
An excerpt from the Field Artillery Manual,
1928, page XXX, 6-7
Today,
boiling is still considered the most effective means of disinfecting
your drinking water, provided you have the means and the fuel to build a
fire. The Field Artillery Manual,
1928, suggested that you boil your water for five minutes to ensure that your
water is disinfected. Today, however, the
United States CDC recommends heating water to a rolling boil for one minute,
and for an additional three minutes at elevations above 2,000 meters (6,562
feet), to insure that the water has remained hot enough, for long enough, to
destroy any dangerous pathogens.
Similarly, the National Wilderness Conference advocates bringing water
to a rolling boil for one minute at sea level and boiling it for an additional
one minute for every 1,000 feet (305 meters) above sea level, to ensure that
dangerous pathogens are destroyed. For
more information read “Water Disinfection: When is boiled, boiled enough…? ©”, HERE.
So,
now we know that while horses can sense whether water is hard or soft, they do
not mind drinking water that is muddy, cloudy, thick, and dirty! So, if you are thirsty, go ahead and “Drink
water from the spring where horses drink”, just disinfect that water first!
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free
to leave a comment on either site. I
announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at
bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.
That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1
I learned to ride at my Grandfather’s farm.
He had a pony named Simon, who was cranky when he was younger, but who
got much more mellow as he aged. We used
to ride him up the hill to get the cows, as we didn’t want to walk since hills
in the Catskills are long and steep.
Unfortunately, Simon had a fatal addiction to radiator fluid, and he
broke into the tractor one day, thirty plus years ago. Rest in peace, Simon.
2 Saint Seraphim of Sarov, was born Prokhor Moshnin on July 19,
1759, in Kursk, Russia and he died on January 2, 1833. He is venerated by both the Eastern Orthodox
Church and the Catholic Church
The Editors of Encyclopaedia
Britannica, “Saint Seraphim of Sarov,
Saint
Seraphim of Sarov’s full quote is as follows:
Drink
water from the spring where horses drink. The horse will never drink bad water.
Lay
your bed where the cat sleeps.
Eat
the fruit that has been touched by a worm.
Boldly
pick the mushroom on which the insects sit.
Plant
the tree where the mole digs.
Build
your house where the snake sits to warm itself.
Dig
your fountain where the birds hide from heat.
Go
to sleep and wake up at the same time with the birds – you will reap all of the
day's golden grains.
Eat
more green – you will have strong legs and a resistant heart, like the beings
of the forest.
Swim
often and you will feel on earth like the fish in the water.
Look
at the sky as often as possible and your thoughts will become light and clear.
Be
quiet a lot, speak little – and silence will come into your heart, and your
spirit will be calm and filled with peace.
3 Ellie Fraser, “You can lead a horse
to water, but should it drink?”, Horse Family Magazine
4
“A doctor can fix giardia, but he can’t fix dead”, or “doctors can
cure a lot of things, but they can’t cure dead” is a survival refrain that
Peter Kummerfeldt teaches, and I have echoed since I first heard it in
2005. When worst comes to worst, and you
are facing dehydration, drinking actually or potentially infected water is
better than not drinking any water at all.
This
might seem like common sense, however as my daughter says, “what is common
sense to one person, isn’t common sense to another; common sense only exists in
the context of your environment”. In
the 1990’s two hikers in the Grand Canyon, ran out of water and didn’t want to
refill their water bottles at a late season creek-bed pothole, teeming with
tadpoles and other life: one of the hikers later died of dehydration and the
other barely survived.
Peter
Kummerfeldt, is a 71 year old survival expert who graduated from the Air Force
Survival Instructor Training School and later was an instructor at the Basic
Survival School, in Spokane, Washington, in the Arctic Survival School,
in Fairbanks, Alaska, and the Jungle Survival School, in the Republic of
the Philippines. Also, Peter was the
Survival Training Director for the United States Air Force Academy, Colorado
Springs, for twelve years (from Peter Kummerfeldt’s biography at “OutdoorSafe
with Peter Kummerfeldt”, found HERE)
“Canyon
Missteps, Lesson: Respect For Danger” Popular Mechanics, Volume 182, Number 8,
August 2005, page 67,
5 Katie
Herrel, “Will Vinegar Purify Water?”
6
Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “Chemical Disinfectants”
7
An excerpt from Field Artillery Manual, Volume One, page XXXIII, 19-20
[Field
Artillery Manual XXXIII, 19-20]
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accessed August 27, 2020
Counsel for Emigrants,
and Interesting Information from Numerous Sources,
[John Mathison, Aberdeen, Scotland, 1834], page 79-80, https://books.google.com/books?id=o64NAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA79&dq=drinking+bad+water&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlxsKbxLvrAhVNmuAKHeEsB9Y4sgUQ6AEwB3oECAgQAg#v=onepage&q=drinking%20bad%20water&f=false,
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Johnson, Cuthbert W.; “The Water We Consume”, The Farmer’s Magazine,
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