SINGEING 269 



does not thoroughly dry, than when the short hair of 

 the clipped animal exposes the overheated skin to the 

 chilling effects of a frosty atmosphere, and thus during 

 pauses from exercise the horse must suffer severely 

 from cold, and besides is liable to be attacked by in- 

 flammation. 



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 approve 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 the instrument as 

 evenly as possible. It must then be dipped in naphtha 

 and lighted, and drawn gently over the coat of the 

 horse, taking care not to go too deep at once, but re- 

 peating it frequently until the hair be burnt as close to 

 the skin as possible. During this operation a blunt 

 table-knife must be held in the left hand, with which to 

 scrape out the flame from time to time, to prevent it 

 burning too deep in any part, as well as to preserve the 

 skin from being blistered. The singed hair must 



