94 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



CLIPPING. 



The advantages of another most important branch 

 of our artificial system, I mean that of chpping, have 

 been so long thoroughly established that it is needless 

 here to argue the point, as to the utihty or inexpedience 

 of the practice. It is not very often that thorough-bred 

 horses will require it; but I may safely venture to say that, 

 at least, nineteen out of twenty hunters are the better for 

 it. It must not be made an excuse for idleness in grooms. 

 A horse, well groomed and properly dressed, ought to 

 carry a fine and bright coat, at all events till he is ex- 

 posed to the winds and storms, and the varieties of heat 

 and cold which he encounters in his vocation as a hunter. 

 But, when the coat is thick and long, it must not only 

 increase perspiration, but operate as a wet blanket, in 

 preventing the skin from becoming dry and warm. The 

 benefit of good, strong, strapping at a horse, is not only 

 in the cleansing of his coat, and thereby rendering the 

 pores of his skin more healthy, but it is (according to 

 the general principles of irritation upon the surface of 

 the body) in the promotion of the circulation which it 

 occasions. There must, therefore, be no lack of what, 

 in the vulgar parlance of the stable fraternity, is expres- 

 sively termed elbow-grease, because a clipped horse may 

 appear to require less than another. Good strapping 

 will have a double, effect upon him, and make his coat 



