304 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



stables of rich men, where grooms are abundant ; 

 and such, I confess, was long my opinion. But when 

 finally I tried the experiment with my own hands, I 

 quickly discovered the mistake. The truth is, that a 

 horse can be cleaned not only much better, but much 

 quicker, without the currycomb, used upon him, than 

 with it ; the reason being that the currycomb applied 

 to his skin irritates it, and therefore produces more 

 dandruff than it removes. The true way to clean the 

 horse is to rub him round and round with the brush ; 

 and to supplement this by smoothing down the hair 

 with a cloth or a chamois skin, or both. Thus he 

 can be made and kept perfectly clean. Even a mane 

 brush is too severe for a very fine-coated animal. An 

 Indian Sayce does his work almost entirely with the 

 palms of his hands. A wet wisp of hay or straw 

 is very effective in taking up dandruff ; but the main 

 reliance must be the currycomb brush. 



"If a horse is clean," writes Major Fisher, 1 "no 

 scurf or grease of any kind should ever adhere to the 

 hand when rubbed over the skin. If your groom 

 assures you to the contrary, and says that you must 

 expect a little, he lies, and knows it too." 



It is related of Mr. Jefferson that he was accus- 

 tomed at Monticello, his Virginia home, whenever a 

 horse was brought round from the stables for his 

 morning ride, to rub the animal's coat with a cambric 

 handkerchief, and if any grease or dirt appeared on 

 it, the negro groom was reprimanded, and the horse 

 sent back to the stables. 



1 Author of "Through Stable and Saddle-Room," perhaps 

 the most practical work on the subject of horse-keeping ever 

 published. 



