3^vS THK HORSE. 



auiinul to coiii])os(' hiinsuH' In sleep. Tliis halfliglit more particularly suits 

 horses of lieavy work, and wIid draw almost as much i)y tlic weight of 

 carcase which they can throw into the colhir, as by the de;Liree of muscular 

 eneroy of which they are capable. In the (juiciness of a dimly-liiihted 

 stable they obtain repose, and accumulate flesh and Hit. Dealers are i)er 

 feetly aware of this. Tliey have their darkened stables, in which the 

 young horse, with little or no exercise, and fed upon mashes and ground 

 corn, is made up for sale. The round and plunip appearance, however, 

 which may delude the unwary, soon vanishes with altered treatment, and 

 the animal is found to be unfit for hard work, and predisposed to every 

 inflammatory disease. The circumstances, then, under which a stable 

 somewhat darkened may be allowed, will be easily determined by the ownei 

 of the horse; but, as a general rule, dark stables are unfriendly to cleanli. 

 ness, and the frequent cause of the vice of starting, and of the most seriou 

 diseases of the eyes. 



GROOMING. 



Of this much need not be said, since custom, and, apparently without 

 ill effect, has allotted so little of the comb and the brush to the farmer's 

 horse. The animal that has worked all day, and is turned out at night, 

 requires little more to be done to him than have the dirt brushed off hi?, 

 limbs. Regular grooming, by rendering his skin more sensible to the 

 alteration of temperature, and the inclemency of the weather, would ht 

 prejudicial. The horse that is altogether turned out needs no grooming. 

 The dandriff or scurf which accumulates at the roots of the hair is a pro- 

 vision of nature to defend him from the wind and the cold. 



It is to the stabled horse, highly fed, and little or irregularly worked, that 

 grooming is of so much consequence. Good rubbing with the brush or 

 the currycomb opens the pores of the skin, and circulates the blood to the 

 extremities of the body aad through the minute vessels of the skin, and 

 produces free and healthy perspiration, and stands in the room of exercise. 

 No horse will carry a fine coat without either heat or dressing. They 

 both effect the same purpose; they both increase the insensible perspira- 

 tion ; but the first does it at the expense of health and strength, while the 

 second, at the same time that it produces a glow on the skin, and a determina- 

 tion of blood to it, rouses all the energies of the frame. It would be well 

 for the proprietor of the horse if he were to insist upon it, and to see 

 that liis orders are really obeyed, that the fine coat in which he and 

 his groom so much delight, is produced by honest rubbing, and not by a 

 heated stable and thick clothing, and most of all, not by stimulating or 

 injurious spices. 



When tiie weather will permit the horse to be taken out, he should 

 never be groomed in the stable. Without dwelling on the want of clean- 

 Jiness, when the scurf and dust that are brushed from the horse lodge in 

 his manger, and mingle with his food, experience teaches, that if the cold 

 is not too great, the animal is braced and invigorated from being dressed 

 in the o])en air, to a degree that cannot be attained in the stable. There 

 is no necessity, however, for half the punishment which n)any a groom 

 inflicts upon the horse in the act of dressing; and particularly on one 

 whose skin is thin and sensible. The currycomb should at all times 

 be lightly applied. With many horses its use may be almost dispenscu 

 with; and even the brush need not be so hard, nor the points of the bristles 

 so irregular as they often are. A soft brush, with a little more weight 

 of the hand, will be equally effectual and a great deal more pieasanl 



