96 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



arise from so sudden a transition. Instances are not 

 wanting of lock-jaw, and other fatal consequences of 

 the chill which it may produce. I have, happily, never met 

 with any but the best results, having never neglected a 

 method which I consider as a security against the cold, 

 to which a horse, turned, as it were, at once naked into 

 the world, must be liable. Common sense will tell you 

 that you must put on additional clothing in the stable ; 

 but this is not enough to prevent a horse from catching 

 cold the first time he is stripped in the face of a north- 

 easter. The preventive consists in taking care that he 

 sweats, the first time he leaves his stable, after clipping. 

 It is well to contrive that the operation be finished 

 at a time of day when you can immediately give him a 

 good gallop in clothes ; but his remaining a night in his 

 box will not signify, if, instead of walking him out, as 

 usual, and letting him feel the loss of his coat, you warm 

 him at once, on his first cjoinof out. You thus iniard 

 against any check to that insensible pe}'spiratio?i so 

 essential to man or beast. The surface of the new coat 

 is broken ; it, at once, adapts itself to the skin, assuming 

 a natural complexion ; and the horse will never after seem 

 to regret his loss, if a httle more care be taken, than 

 otherwise might have been, to avoid standing still too 

 long in a current of cold air, for the first two or three 

 times that he is out, after being lightened of his burthen. 

 I have been always in the habit of having my horses well 



