A GROOM'S OPINION. 51 



ing them out of the warm stable does ! " I should, 

 on the other hand, say, if he had sense to under- 

 stand it, " You see what putting him into your wet 

 warm stables does." I quite approve of the 

 warmth ; but there is some difference between the 

 fine dry warmth of a well-aired, well-warmed 

 dining-room, and the damp heat of a washhouse, 

 with a copper boiling in it. I ridicule the idea 

 of those who talk of keeping horses in a natural 

 state of temperature: that is natural, according 

 to their ideas of what is natural, by which they 

 mean cool, or rather cold. The fact is they 

 mistake what is natural to the horse: heat is 

 natural to him, not cold that is, it was natural 

 to him in his original state, and we by use have 

 rendered it the same to him in his present one. 

 He will thrive under a tropical temperature ; but, 

 let it be remembered, a tropical heat is a dry one. 

 A cook will bear the heat of his kitchen, with 

 fires, and hot hearths round him ; the damp, 

 heated air of a forcing-house would shortly kill 

 him, though his kitchen is the warmer berth : but 

 the air there, though hot, is dry. The warmth of 

 the stable is comfortable and healthful to the horse, 

 if it is only a proper warmth : it only becomes in- 

 jurious when the warmth is from a wrong cause : 

 proper warmth should be gained by excluding the 

 cold air, not by keeping in damp and heated ex- 

 halations from the horses' bodies. 



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