192 THE HORSE. 



inasmuch as it requires great practice to make the shortened coat 

 look even and smooth. When a horse is well clipped his skin should 

 look as level and almost as glossy as if he had on his ordinary 

 summer coat ; but inferior performers are apt to leave ridges in 

 various directions, marking each cut of the scissors. It should not 

 be done till the new hair has attained nearly its full length, for it 

 cannot be repeated at short intervals like singeing. If it is 

 attempted too soon the new coat grows unequally, and the skin in 

 a fortnight's time looks rough and ragged. A comb and two or 

 three pairs of variously curved scissors are all that are required, 

 with the exception of a singeing lamp, which must be used at 

 last to remove any loose hairs which may have escaped the blades 

 of the scissors. Two men generally work together, so as to get the 

 operation over in from sixteen to twenty hours, which time it will 

 take to clip an averaged-sized horse properly. These men were 

 formerly in great demand at the clipping season, and it was extra- 

 ordinary how little rest sufficed for them, but now the use of the 

 gas singeing-lamp has nearly superseded that of the scissors, and 

 clippers are not so much sought after. While the process is going 

 on, the horse ought to be clothed as far as possible, careful men 

 removing only as much of the quarter piece as is sufficient to 

 expose the part they are working at and no more. As soon as the 

 whole body is gone over as well as the legs, the singeing-lamp is 

 lightly passed over the surface, which will leave the hair burned to 

 such an extent as to require either washing or a sweat, which lat- 

 ter is generally adopted, in the belief that it has a tendency to 

 prevent cold. My own opinion is that this is a fallacy, and that 

 soap and water used quickly and rapidly, followed up by a good 

 strapping and the use of plenty of warm clothing, is far less likely 

 to chill the horse than the exhaustion consequent upon a sweat. 

 I have tried the plan repeatedly, and known it tried by others still 

 more frequently, but I have never heard of any ill effects resulting. 

 Very often a sweat is exceedingly inconvenient, either from the 

 difficulty in getting ground, as happens in towns, or from the in- 

 firm state of the legs. But soap and water can always be obtained, 

 and if carefully used there is not the slightest danger attending 

 them. Of course, after the removal of a long coat the skin requires 

 an extra protection in-doors in the shape of a double allowance of 

 clothing, and it will be necessary to avoid standing still out of doors, 

 though, as I before remarked, on the whole the risk of taking 

 cold by horses worked hard enough to sweat them is less if they 

 are clipped than if they have their long coats on. 



SINGEING requires less practice than clipping, but it cannot be 

 done without some little experience of its difficulties, and a novice 

 generally burns the skin as well as the hair. To keep a horse's 

 coat in good order it must be singed several times in the course of 



