THE GROOM 121 



body. It requires nothing but half-a-dozen razors, 

 hot water, and common soap, well lathered in to the 

 part you are at work upon. There should be a man 

 or boy to hold the horse, one to shave, and a third to 

 keep setting the razors, as it makes awkward work 

 when the shaver has to stop every now and then, dry 

 his hands, and commence whetting. It is a more 

 efficacious process than clipping, and gets rid of much 

 of the singeing and smell-making that concludes that 

 operation. The only difference in point of conven- 

 ience is, that you cannot well ride a shaved horse 

 without clothing for a week or so after the operation, 

 whereas a clipped one will come out the day after 

 indeed we once saw a horse out with hounds in Kent, 

 whose fore-quarters were rough and shaggy, and the 

 hind ones smooth and smart, looking very like a 

 French poodle, a likeness that was increased by the 

 monkeyfied appearance of the man upon it. As to 

 the risk attending either clipping or shaving, we 

 confess we never saw or heard of any ill effects 

 arising from either, though, as we said before, we 

 have seen and felt very great advantages. We may, 

 therefore, be called "clippers." 



Now to the general subject of Grooms and con- 

 dition. 



A real Leicestershire Hunting Groom treads closely 

 on the heels of the Training Groom, with respect to 

 condition : he is, in fact, a Training Groom without 

 the "humbug," at least he ought to be without it. 

 Some men keep Grooms to be their masters, and to 

 these the real Training Groom perhaps would be the 

 thing. They then would not get a glimpse of their 

 horses, save by sufferance. We have no notion of 

 paying a man to be our master. A gentleman ought 

 to be just as good a judge of the requirements of a 

 hunter as a Groom, indeed he ought to be a better, 

 because he is the man who has ridden the animal, and 

 he also is the man who knows when he wants to ride 



