424 AMOUNT OF AND TIME FOR GROOMING. 



AMOUNT OF GROOMING. 



When the horse is doing regular daily work, the groom- 

 ing should be done twice a day — first the early morning 

 grooming and then again after being out. The purpose of 

 the early grooming is to cleanse the skin and coat of the 

 continually accumulating emanations of the body. The 

 necessity of the second grooming, to remove the dust and 

 sweat, is self-evident. In stormy weather, when the horse is 

 not taken out, the morning cleaning is sufficient. A horse 

 not in use, but kept in condition by daily exercise, should be 

 regularly groomed twice a day, unless an economy of time 

 has to be practised, in which case the cleaning should be 

 done after the horse has been exercised. 



TIME FOR GROOMING. 



As to the time at which the srroomino: should be besfun 

 there is some little diversity of opinion. The common prac- 

 tice is to have this work done as soon as the horses are fed 

 and watered ; the writer, however, has found it more conven- 

 ient for the men, and consequently productive of greater 

 success, to have the horses watered and fed and the bedding 

 cared for between six and seven a. m. After the servants 

 have had their breakfast, the grooming is commenced 

 promptly at seven thirty, and half an hour allowed for each 

 horse. Grooming is hard work and doubly hard on an 

 empty stomach, while that of cleaning up the stalls, arrang- 

 ing the day bedding and putting the wet straw out to dry 

 is comparatively light work. By having this part of the 

 work done before breakfast and allowing half an hour, from 

 seven to seven thirty, to elapse between the feeding and the 

 " strapping," the servants' comfort is considered as well as 



