192 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



it has upon them. They should be kept very short 

 for two days before hunting. Their bowels should be 

 kept free by physic, and an occasional loose cold bran 

 mash will lessen their desire for, and obviate the 

 necessity of, much water. I always have found horses 

 which are subject to chronic cough naturally hard 

 feeders. Frequent gentle sweats, producing a deter- 

 mination to the surface of the skin, and thereby re- 

 lieving the lungs, should never be omitted. 



What a man has always to do should be done well ; 

 therefore it may not be amiss to state what is con- 

 sidered by grooms to be the best method of treating 

 a horse when in the stable. Whoever has noticed 

 an experienced nurse handling a young infant must 

 observe a peculiar method of touching it which nothing 

 but practice can give her. Thus it is with a groom. 

 There is a method of handling a horse peculiar to one 

 who knows his business, which a bystander, who is 

 a judge of such matters, cannot mistake. Even in 

 the act of stripping him — before he puts his hand 

 upon him to dress him — there is a method to be 

 observed. Having secured his head and muzzled 

 him, he first unbuckles his roller and the near side 

 of his breast -plate ; when passing his left hand down 

 the spine of the horse, he draws the clothes off, over 

 his tail, and throws them into one side of the manger. 

 By this method every hair in his skin will lie smoothly. 

 When his clothes are replaced, having been well 

 shaken, they should be put some inches forwarder 

 than they are intended to remain ; when the groom, 

 going just behind the tail of his horse, should draw 



