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tied to a post at the curbstone, after a drive, 

 when the thermometer was near zero, and 

 instead of being restless and impatient, 

 have found him quietly dozing. 



The horse blanket then, instead of be- 

 ing, as many think, a positive necessity, 

 is merely a matter of fancy — ornamental, 

 perhaps, but quite unscientific, — giving 

 much more comfort to the owner than to 

 the animal. Personally, I never use one. 



It should not entirely escape our atten- 

 tion, that when we cover a horse with a 

 blanket, no matter how much imaginary 

 pleasure it may afford us, we are really 

 only trying to protect the toughest part of 

 the animal, — his roof, as it were, where the 

 skin is the thickest, and the coat heaviest, 

 and the sensibility the least, — while the 



