HORSE— CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



33 



hair on the legs is about a month later in 

 coming off, and indeed it will not fall till 

 midsummer, unless some more violent 

 means than are used in ordinary dressing 

 are adopted. With some breeds and in- 

 dividuals the winter coat is not very 

 much longer and coarser than that of the 

 summer ; but all, save blind horses, show 

 more or less difference in favor of the 

 summer coat. Curiously enough, horses 

 which are totally deprived of sight have 

 almost invariably a good winter's coat, 

 often better than that which they show at 

 other seasons ; but why this is so, no one 

 has ever been able to explain, though we 

 have never known the fact disputed. 

 About the middle of October, or early in 

 November, the summer coat is thrown 

 off; but some of the hair appears to re- 

 main as a sort of undercoat, among 

 which the long, coarse hairs of winter 

 make their appearance. These continue 

 growing for six weeks or two months if 

 they are clipped or singed, and even after 

 Christmas, if the weather is cold and the 

 skin is much exposed, there will be an ev- 

 ident increase in length of some of the 

 hair. In accordance with the growth of 

 this on the body is that of the hair on 

 the legs, which become feathered all the 

 way down below the knees in the fore 

 legs, and half way down the backs of the 

 canna bones in the hind legs. Low-bred 

 horses have more hair on those parts than 

 thorough-breds; but even these latter, if 

 they are not stabled tolerably warmly, ex- 

 hibit a great deal of hair on their legs. 

 Those who can see no possibility of im- 

 proving on nature come to the conclusion 

 that this long hair is a defence against the 

 cold, which ought not to be removed, 

 and they argue that clipping and singe- 

 ing are on that account to be rejected al- 

 together. But these gentlemen forget 

 that the horse in his native plains has al- 

 ways a short coat, and that the winds and 

 rains, which cause him here to throw out 

 an extra protection, are not natural to 

 him. Moreover, if the animal is left to 

 follow his own impulses, even when turned 

 out in this country, he will be all the bet- 

 ter for his long coat, for while it has the 

 great advantage of protecting him from 

 the cold, it is not wetted by sweat, be- 

 cause he does not voluntarily gallop long 

 and fast enough to produce that secre- 

 tion. The natural protection is therefore 



undoubtedly good for the horse when left 

 in a state of nature ; but when man steps 

 in and requires the use of the horse for 

 such work as will sweat him severely, he 

 discovers that a long coat produces such 

 great exhaustion, both during work and 

 after it, that it entirely forbids the employ- 

 ment of the horse for hunting, or any fast 

 work. We have many times found it im- 

 possible to extend a horse for any dis- 

 tance on account of his long coat, which 

 distressed him so much as to make him 

 blow directly, whereas on removing it 

 with die clipping scissors he could gallop 

 as lightly as a race-horse, and be able to- 

 go as fast and as far again as before. 

 When this happens in the course of the 

 week following the previous failure, the- 

 only change made being in the coat, 

 there can be no mistake made, and a con- 

 stant repetition of the same result leaves 

 no room for dispute as to the beneficial 

 effects of removing the hair. But, say 

 the opponents of the plan, " All this may 

 be true, yet it is unsafe to expose the- 

 clipped horse after he has been warmed,, 

 or indeed at at any time." Experience 

 tells a very different tale, and informs us- 

 that so far from making the horse more 

 liable to cold, clipping and singeing ren- 

 der him far less so. Suppose one of our- 

 selves to be exposed to a cold wind, 

 should we rather have on a thin dry coat 

 or a thick wet one ? Assuredly the for- 

 mer, and undoubtedly the wearer of it 

 would be less liable to cold than he who- 

 has the wet one on. So with the horse. 

 As long as his winter coat can be kept 

 dry he is protected by it, and the slow 

 worker, who is not made to pull such 

 heavy weight as to sweat him, will be all 

 the better for its protection, but the mo- 

 ment the pace is sufficiently accelerated"- 

 to warm the skin, the sweat pours forth r 

 and is kept up in-doors by the matted* 

 mass of moist hair with which the horse 

 is covered. In former days we have had* 

 horses wet for weeks together, from the- 

 impossibility of getting them dry in the. 

 intervals of their work. They would: 

 break out afresh when apparently cool,, 

 and by no possible means could they be 

 thoroughly dried. This of course wasted 

 their flesh to a frightful extent, but on 

 clipping them it was soon put on again, 

 showing the great advantage of the plan. 

 A chronic cough almost always accom- 



