Cloathing\ 215 



f reserve instead of destroying- the equilibrium of the animal's tem- 

 perature. 



Buij it may be thought by some ^vho pique tliemselves upon 

 being considered good managers of Horses, that I write rather 

 like a Tiieorist than one who has looked into the subject practically^ 

 were I not to admits that instances are now and then to be met with, 

 (especially amongst the young and delicate) of Horses which thrive 

 better when cloathed, than when they are not cloathed; a fact which 

 it is impossible to deny. 



It must be recollected, however, that I am now contending for a 

 broad general principle, to which in all cases some exceptions are to 

 be found. Besides, if the instances which appear to furnish an excep- 

 tion to the general rule in this case, were we to be scrutinized closely, 

 we should find that they could scarcely be said to invalidate it, except 

 in the slightest degree. For, these Horses would uniformly be found 

 either to have weak digestive organs, or to be naturally of a tender 

 irritable frame, apt to sweat on the least motion, throwing off their 

 food in a loose half-digested state, incapable of supporting hun- 

 ger or fatigue, and of that description which is called washy, in 

 the cant language of dealers. Bat, the Cloathing system, instead 

 of remedying these original or a-'q lired defects, is calculated only to 

 encrease them by con(ribul,iiig to perpetuate that morbid irritability, 

 which under a more rauoiial system of management, might be 

 more successfully combated. Por, at the period which may be termed 

 the infancy of Horses, compared with that of the natural life of the 

 animal, we begin our absurd, rnonbtrous S3'stem of Stable Manage- 

 ment, which is of itself calcutated to undermine slowly, the most 

 robust constitution, and consequently to exasperate the defects of the 



