ZA8 THE HORSE. 
it with tne clipping scissors he could gallop as lightly as a racehorse, and 
be able to go as fast and as far again as before. When this happens in 
the course of the week following the previous failure, the only change 
made being in the coat, there can be no mistake made, and a constant 
repetition of the same result leaves no room for dispute as to the bene- 
ficial effects of removing the hair. But, say the opponents of the plan, 
“¢ All this may be true, yet it is unsafe to expose the clipped*horse after 
he has been warmed, or indeed at any time.” Experience tells a very 
different tale, and informs us that so far from making the horse more 
able to cold, clipping and singeing render him far less so. Suppose one 
of ourselves to be exposed to a cold wind, should we rather have on a 
thin dry coat or a thick wet one? Assuredly the former, and undoubtedly 
the wearer of it would be less liable to cold than he who has the wet one 
on. So with the horse. As long as his winter coat can be kept dry he is 
protected by it, and the slow worker, who is not made to pull such heavy 
weight as to sweat him, will be all the better for its protection, but the 
moment the pace is sufficiently accelerated to warm the skin the sweat 
pours forth, and is kept up in-doors by the matted mass of moist hair 
with which the horse is covered. In former days I have had horses wet 
for weeks together, from the impossibility of getting them dry in the 
intervals of their work. They would break out afresh when apparently 
cool, and by no possible means could they be thoroughly dried. This of 
course wasted their flesh to a frightful extent, but on clipping them it 
was soon put on again, showing the great advantage of the plan. A 
chronic cough almost always accompanies this state of constant sweat, 
and it will be lucky for the owner of a horse so treated if it does not 
become acute and put an end to the miserable existence of the poor ill- 
treated brute. The case is not always fairly put, as for instance by 
Stewart in his Stable Economy, at page 120, where he says, “A long coat 
takes up a deal of moisture, and is difficult to dry ; but whether wet or 
dry it affords some defence to the skin, which is laid bare to every breath 
of air when deprived of its natural covering. Everyone must know from 
himself whether wet clothing and a wet skin, or no clothing and a wet 
skin, is the most disagreeable and dangerous. It is true that clipping 
saves the groom a great deal of labour. He can dry the horse in half the 
time, and with less than half of the exertion which a long coat requires ; 
but it makes his attention and activity more necessary, for the horse is 
almost sure to catch cold, if not dried immediately. When well clothed 
with hair he is in less danger, and not so much dependent on the care of 
his groom.” Now, I maintain that this passage is full of fallacies and 
misstatements. The comparison is not between wet clothing and a wet 
skin, and no clothing and a wet skin; but, as I have before observed, 
between a wet long coat and a dry short one. The clipping removes the 
tendency to sweat, or if this secretion is poured out it ceases directly the 
exercise which produced it is stopped. But taking Mr. Stewart on his 
own terms, who has not experienced the relief which is afforded by 
taking off wet gloves and exposing the naked hands to the same amount 
of wind and cold? This is exactly the case as he puts it, and tells 
directly against his argument; but it is scarcely worth while to discuss 
the subject at any length, for I know no horseman of experience in the 
present day who does not advocate the use of the scissors or the lamp, 
whenever the winter coat is much longer than that of summer. That 
horses are occasionally to be met with which show little or no change in 
the autumn I know full well; but these are the exceptions to the ruls, 
