CLIPPING AND SINGEING. 249 
being few and far between. The vast majority would have their hair 
from one to two inches long if left in its natural state, and they would 
then be wholly unfit for the uses to which they are put. We may there- 
fore consider that it is admitted to be the best plan to shorten the coat in 
the autumn, and all I have to do is to discuss the best modes of effecting 
the purpose, with a view to decide whether clipping or singing is to be 
vreferred. 
Curprine is seldom performed by any but the professed artist, inasmuch 
as it requires great practice to make the shortened coat look even and 
smooth. When a horse is well clipped his skin should look as level and 
almost as glossy as if he had on his ordinary summer coat; but inferior 
performers are apt to leave ridges in various directions, marking each cut 
of the scissors. It should not be done till the new hair has attained nearly 
its full length, for it cannot be repeated at short intervals like singeing. If 
it is attempted too soon the new coat grows unequally, and the skin in a 
fortnight’s time looks rough and ragged. A comb and two or three pairs 
of variously curved scissors are all that are required, with the exception 
of a singeing lamp, which must be used at last to remove any loose hairs 
which may have escaped the blades of the scissors. ‘Two men generally 
work together, so as to get the operation over in from sixteen to twenty 
hours, which time it will take to clip an average-sized horse properly. 
These men were formerly in great demand at the clipping season, and it 
was extraordinary how little rest sufficed for them, but now the use of 
the gas singeing-lamp has nearly superseded that of the scissors, and 
clippers are not so much sought after. While the process is going on, 
the horse ought to be clothed as far as possible, careful men removing 
only as much of the quarter piece as is sufficient to expose the part they 
are working at and no more. As soon as the whole body is gone over as 
well as the legs, the singeing lamp is lightly passed over the surface, which 
will leave the hair burned to such an extent as to require either washing 
or a sweat, which latter is generally adopted, in the belief that it has a 
tendency to prevent cold. My own opinion is that this is a fallacy, and 
that soap and water used quickly and rapidly, followed up by a good 
strapping and the use of plenty of warm clothing, is far less likely to 
chill the horse than the exhaustion consequent upon a sweat. I have 
tried the plan repeatedly, and known it tried by others still more fre- 
quently, but I have never heard of any ill effects resulting. Very often 
a sweat is exceedingly inconvenient, either from the difficulty in getting 
ground, as happens in towns, or from the infirm state of the legs. But soap 
and water can always be obtained, and if carefully used there is not the 
slightest danger attending them. Of course after the removal of a long 
coat the skin requires an extra protection in-doors in the shape of a 
double allowance of clothing, and it will be necessary to avoid standing 
still out of doors, though, as I before remarked, on the whole the risk of 
taking cold by horses worked hard enough to sweat them is less if they 
are clipped than if they have their long coats on. 
SINGEING requires less practice than clipping, but it cannot be done 
without some little experience of its difficulties, and a novice generally 
* burns the skin as well as the hair. To keep a horse’s coat in good order 
it must be singed several times in the course of the autumn, beginning as 
soon as the new growth has attained a length of half an inch beyond 
what is usual. The singeing-lamp is then passed lightly over the whole 
body, and soap and water being used, as I have described under the head 
of clipping, or a sweat given if that plan is preferred, the coat is left for 
