2 3§ XENOPHON's TREATISE 



pofes *, and in general wherever he goes, and is not 

 bridled ; for the muzzle prevents his biting, without 

 interrupting his breath, and hinders him from exe- 

 cuting any vicious defigns. 



The halter with which the horfe is tied fhould be 

 fixed above his head, becaufe, when any thing offends 

 his face, it is natural for him to try to get rid of it, 

 by toiling his head upwards ; and if he is thus tied, 

 that motion, inflead of tightening, will flaken his 

 halter. 



In dreilmg the horfe, it is right to begin with the 

 head and mane ; for if the upper parts are not clean, 

 it is in vain to make the lower ones fo. Let the reft 

 of his body be cleanfed with all forts of dreiling in- 

 flruments, and the duft wiped off the way the hair 

 lies. But the hair on the back-bone fliould not be 

 touched with an inftrument, for fear of injuring it, fo 

 as to make it unfit to bear the rider.— -It fliould be 

 rubbed with the hand only, and fmoothed down the 

 way it naturally grows. 



* In the original and literal fenfe, it is, when he takes him to the 

 Rolling-place. It means, that the horfe (hould be muzzled when he is 

 turned out of the liable into a field, yard, or other place, where he may 

 tumble and roll himfelf. The Greeks thought this a wholefome prac- 

 tice, and very refrefhing after fatigue. Apfyrtus recommends it; and 

 Vegetius fays, when an horfe forbears to roll himfelf, it is a fymptom 

 of his not being well. "Let this horfe roll himfelf upon the fand, and 

 " then lead him to the ftable," fays a Charailer in the Clouds of Arifto- 

 phanes, A6t i. Se£l. i. 



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