TIME REQUIRED FOR GROOMING. 425 



that of the horse. Moreover, it is more convenient at this 

 latter hour for the owner to be present now and then when 

 the grooming is being done. If the master has to be car- 

 ried to the railroad station at an early hour such a pro- 

 gramme is open to serious objections, unless the servant 

 begins the work at an earlier hour. Many grooms will de- 

 clare that they are up at five and like it. The writer has had, 

 in a long experience, some of these avowedly early risers in 

 his service, but has found in actual practice that they shirked 

 beginning work at six o'clock. 



" The duties of the groom considered in relation to time usually com- 

 mence at half past five or six in the morning." John Stewart, " Stable 

 Economy" p. 78. 



TIME REQUIRED FOR GROOMING. 



Three-quarters of an hour is ample time in which to 

 thoroughly groom a horse, and a man who cannot do it in 

 that time has missed his calling, and the services of a com- 

 petent man should be secured. The majority of horses can 

 be well and thoroughly groomed in half an hour, but there 

 are some animals that, owing to heavy, rough coats or manes, 

 demand an additional fifteen minutes' labor. Many servants 

 work an hour or more over each horse, but they simply 

 waste time either from not employing it to good advantage or 

 because they perform their work unsystematically. When 

 men know that if the grooming can be properly done in 

 from half to three-quarters of an hour, and are made to 

 understand that their master knows it should be done in 

 this time, they will perform their work with a proper amount 

 of celerity. 



" A good groom ought to be able to. clean a horse thoroughly in the 



