no THE COMPLETE HORSEMAN 



they are not in use they should be kept oiled and 

 in a leather case. The question arises when 

 should a horse be clipped and how often, and 

 this is a point on w^hich there is considerable 

 disagreement. I have seen many plans tried 

 and indeed have tried many myself. The plan I 

 finally adopted was to clip the horse in October 

 as soon as ever his coat was well up. I singed 

 him lightly from time to time to take the long 

 hairs off, but a horse's coat grows quickly in 

 November and December and by the middle of 

 December, if not earlier, he was ready for a 

 second clipping. After that there was no diffi- 

 culty in keeping his coat down by running him 

 over with the singeing lamp once a week or even 

 seldomer after the new year got well turned. 

 The horses I am. speaking of were well-bred ones. 

 A horse witii a considerable admixture of carting 

 blood might need clipping oftener, or at any rate 

 more attention paid to his coat. But even in 

 his case I should prefer more singeing instead of a 

 third clipping. 



Most stables now have a gas singeing appar- 

 atus attached but if the lamps are properly 

 trimmed I prefer the old-fashioned naphtha ones. 

 So far as my experience goes I think horses are 

 more liable to be burnt with gas lamps, and I 

 certainly have never had any horses so badly 

 burnt with naphtha, as with gas. Indeed I never 

 had a horse really burnt with naphtha, which is 

 more than I can say about gas. And the naphtha 

 lamps are much easier changed than the gas 



