190 THE HORSE. 



knees iu the forelegs, and half way down the backs of ths eanna 

 bones in the hind legs. Low-bred horses have more hair on these 

 parts than thorough-breds ; but even these latter, if they are not 

 ^tabled tolerably warmly, exhibit a great deal of hair on their legs. 

 Those who can see no possibility of improving on nature come to 

 the conclusion that this long hair is a defence against the cold, 

 which ought not to be removed, and they argue that clipping and 

 singeing are on that account to be rejected altogether. But these 

 gentlemen forget that the horse in his native plains has always a 

 short coat, and that the winds and rains, which cause him here to 

 throw out an extra protection, are not natural to him. Moreover, 

 if the animal is left to follow his own impulses, even when turned 

 out in this country, he will be all the better for his long coat, for 

 while it has the great advantage of protecting him from the cold, 

 it is not wetted by sweat, because he does not voluntarily gallop 

 long and fast enough to produce that secretion. The natural pro- 

 tection is therefore undoubtedly good for the horse when left in a 

 state of nature ; but when man steps in and requires the use of 

 the horse for such work as will sweat him severely, he discovers 

 that a long coat produces such great exhaustion, both during work 

 and after it, that it entirely forbids the employment of the horse 

 for hunting, or any fast work. I have myself many times found it 

 impossible to extend a horse for any distance on account of his long 

 coat, which distressed him so much as to make him blow directly, 

 whereas on removing it with the clipping scissors he could gallop 

 as lightly as a race-horse, and be able to go as fast and as far 

 again as before. When this happens in the course of the week 

 following the previous failure, the only change made being in the 

 coat, there can be no mistake made, and a constant repetition of 

 the same result leaves no room for dispute as to the beneficial effects 

 of removing the hair. But, say the opponents of the plan, " All 

 this may be true, yet it is unsafe to expose the clipped horse after 

 he has been warmed, or indeed at any time." Experience tells a 

 very different tale, and informs us that so far from making the 

 horse more liable to cold, clipping and singeing render him far less 

 so. Suppose one of ourselves to be exposed to a cold wind, should 

 we rather have on a thin dry coat or a thick wet one ? Assuredly 

 the former, and undoubtedly the wearer of it would be less liable 

 to cold than he who has the wet one on. So with the horse. As 

 long as his winter coat can be kept dry he is protected by it, and 

 the slow worker, who is not made to pull such heavy weight as to 

 sweat him, will be all the better for its protection, but the moment 

 the pace is suflSciently accelerated to warm the skin the sweat pours 

 forth, and is kept up in-doors by the matted mass of moist hair 

 with which the horse i«< covered. In former days I have had horses 

 >vet for weeks together, from the impossibility of getting them drv 



