CLIPPING HORSES. 97 



subsided, the horse remained throughout the winter naked 

 like an elephant. In order, therefore, to shorten the coat 

 exactly in proportion to its uncertain growth, it was deter- 

 mined, gradually and repeatedly, to burn it by fire to the 

 minimum length prescribed that is, leaving only sufficient 

 to conceal the bare skin/' 



Strange to say, the practice of depriving a horse of his 

 superb hairy covering has especially been used amongst 

 animals that need it least. Our well-bred hunters need 

 it not, and we can only explain the resolute adherence 

 to the plan in the same way that we see many absurd prac- 

 tices perpetrated in the stables where clipping is chiefly in 

 vogue. In such stables the amount of quackery which is 

 carried on is extraordinary, and the mortality amongst horses 

 great. 



Our stage-coach proprietors, and the hunting men of the 

 past and early part of the present century, were ingenious 

 enough to adopt any expedient to render their animals 

 better fit for the hard work they had to undergo ; but they 

 never saw the necessity of clipping horses like French 

 poodles. We have resisted the extension of the practice as 

 much as possible, and wherever clipping has not been 

 resorted to, cracked heels and swollen legs have not tor- 

 mented the horse proprietors. We have known whole studs 

 this winter lame and helpless entirely from the legs being 

 deprived of their only efficient covering, and in all wet 

 seasons the number of cases of dangerous illness from this 

 cause is very great. 



The skin of animals destined by nature to be covered with 

 hair cannot be exposed with impunity no number of horse- 

 cloths and no degree of stable heat, obtained as it is at the 

 expense of purity of the atmosphere, can make up for the 

 uniformly-distributed hairy coat. Any portion of skin 

 VOL. ii. 3 A 



