THE GROOM 135 



Exercising before breakfast is a great promoter of 

 short commons in the walking department, and a 

 great inducement for an early return. We do not 

 know why Grooms should like having their horses 

 out before the world is properly aired, but certainly 

 the managers of large studs generally adhere to that 

 system. In the old days of mails and coaches, we 

 have often passed whole strings of sheeted and hooded 

 horses in the environs of different hunting quarters, 

 as we have whisked by in the opening mist of early 

 dawn. Six o'clock is the usually prescribed stable- 

 man's hour for being with his horses, which is two 

 hours before daylight in winter. Doubtless the earlier 

 a man is at his stable the better, to see that all is 

 right and quiet ; but we think it would be better both 

 for horse and man, if, after setting things fair and 

 straight, the latter returned to his breakfast, and took 

 his horses out after sun-rise. 



Sheeting and hooding horses at exercise to the 

 extent we generally see them, and then sending them 

 out next day with only a saddle on, seems almost an 

 experiment on health. Again, how seldom we see 

 them clothed according to the state of the weather 

 and the season of the year. What is once put on 

 is generally kept on. It is a good rule in hunting 

 stables, where horses have to lie out often, to clothe 

 lightly at home. An extra rug or sheet will then tell 

 should the Groom get into a bad, cold, or unaired 

 stable. 



Galloping horses to get them into condition is a 

 dangerous process, and one in which, we believe, 

 more are lamed and broken down than by regular 

 work in the hunting field. Taking a horse into a 

 field by himself, oppressed with fat and clothing, and 

 kicking and bucketing him about till the sweat runs 

 down in streams, and he is fit to drop, does seem an 

 abuse of the noble animal that nothing can justify. 

 The horse does not know what it means, what you 



