PRECAUTIONS IN MOULTING SEASON i6i 



sient than the bloom on a horse's skin — so intimately 

 connected are its extreme and minute vessels with the 

 vascular system at large. It may, indeed, so truly 

 be called his complexion, that a man of observation, 

 in the habit of daily inspecting his stable, can see with 

 a glance of his eye if his horse is doing well or not. 

 In the degrees of discernment, then, consists the merit 

 or demerit of a groom ; and even then, unless he knows 

 the causes of effects — the why and the wherefore — 

 all is still darkness. 



As a fine genius is said to be a man at his highest 

 perfection, and as, next to man and woman, the horse 

 is the paragon of animals, so may we call him, when 

 in the highest possible condition, the next fairest sample 

 of a happy combination of nature and art. The bow, 

 however, must not always be bent. It was observed 

 by Hippocrates that the health of man was most 

 precarious when arrived at the highest pitch ; and I 

 am sure this may be applied to the horse. In this 

 respect training grooms are, generally speaking, the 

 best physiologists, and more awake to the sudden 

 alterations which take place in those under their 

 care ; or, in the more humble language of the stable, 

 when a horse becomes foul. Inasmuch, then, as pre- 

 vention is preferable to remedies, is this a most 

 important part of a groom's services to his master, 

 as he may be the means of checking incipient 

 disease. 



There are progressive stages in all diseases ; but 

 those of an inflammatory nature, and to which horses 

 in condition are most exposed, are often so active and 



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