296 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY 



The stable- clothing should be warmer, the usual quantity 

 of food should be diminished, and bran-mashes given instead 

 of hard food. 



CLIPPING. 



It is an utter absurdity to denude the animal of its 

 natural quantity of clothing. It has been a practice to clip 

 hunters, so that the coat of the animal may sooner dry after 

 a long run ; but there is less danger to be apprehended 

 from the longer coat, although it does not thoroughly dry^ 

 than when the short hair of the clipped animal exposes the 

 overheated skin to the chilling effects of a frosty atmo- 

 sphere, and thus during pauses from exercise the horse 

 must suffer severely from cold, and besides is liable to be 

 attacked by inflammation. 



I am aware that many persons of much experience will 

 differ with me in what I have said upon this subject. 

 Waiving my objections, it must be admitted that the skin 

 of the animal will dry much sooner after hard labour when 

 he has a thin coat, and undoubtedly much labour will be 

 saved to the groom, which is of material consequence. It 

 has been said that horses which have short hair feed much 

 sooner after a hard run than those which have a long and 

 rough coat ; and then when once it is dried, there is less 

 chance of its afterwards breaking out into a sweat. 



SINGEING. 



Many ajjprove and recommend this operation, and by a 

 little practice it can be singed nearly as close as in clipping. 

 The instrument used is a piece of iron, about four inches 

 wide at the extremity, made in the form of a Dutch-hoe, 

 and inserted into a handle six or eight inches long. Some 

 wick-cotton must be rolled round the bar at the bottom of 



