104 STABLE ECONOMY. 



so difficult to clean, and they are not liable to the faint, fever- 

 ed condition which fast work produces in hot weather. The 

 men who attend these slow horses are seldom able to bathe 

 them, even though bathing were beneficial. They have not 

 sufficient despatch. 



OPERATIONS OF DECORATION. 



SOME of these might very well be termed expurgatory or 

 deformatory operations. Many of them consist in removing 

 something supposed to be superfluous or noxious, or something 

 offensive to taste, which among stablemen is often sufficiently 

 corrupt. To judge of their propriety or impropriety, it is 

 necessary to advert briefly to 



THE USES AND PROPERTIES OF THE HAIR. That which 

 forms the general covering is intended to keep the horse 

 warm. It conducts heat very slowly, and is therefore well 

 adapted for retaining it. It absorbs no moisture, and when 

 the horse is in good health, every hair is anointed with an 

 oily sort of fluid which imparts a beautiful gloss, and repels 

 moisture. 



The hair is shed every spring and every autumn. The short 

 fine coat which suffices for the summer, affords little protection 

 against the severity of winter ; it falls and is replaced by 

 another of the same material, though longer and coarser. It 

 is not very obvious why the horse should moult twice every 

 year. We might suppose that a mere increase in the length 

 of the summer coat would render it sufficiently warm for the 

 winter. Without doubt there is some reason why it is other- 

 wise ordered. The hair" perhaps is not of the same texture ; 

 that of the winter coat certainly appears to be coarser ; it is 

 thicker, and it requires more care to keep it glossy than the 

 hair of a summer coat. 



The hair is not cast all at once. Before losing its connex- 

 ion with the skin it assumes a lighter color, and becomes dim 

 and deadlike. On some warm day a large quantity comes 

 away which is not missed, though its fall is very evident. 

 The process seems to stop for several days and to recom- 

 mence. Though a little is always falling, yet there are times 

 at which large quantities come out, and it is said that the 

 whole is shed at thrice. Moulting, and the length and thick- 

 ness of the coat, are much influenced by stable treatment and 

 the weather. Horses that are much and for a long time out 

 of doors, exposed to cold, always have the hair much 



