138 THE COMPLETE HORSEMAN 



used in such quantities that one is tempted to 

 think that the old grooms, following the example 

 of the dandy's valet, drank the wine and breathed 

 on the horses, or at any rate did a little tasting. 



In these particulars the recipes of the grooms 

 of which I spoke earlier in the Chapter are a 

 very close imitation of Markham. Bleeding I 

 need scarcely say is warmly advocated by Mark- 

 ham and also by the grooms. Horses must be 

 bled twice a year, Spring and Autumn, under 

 any circumstances. 



It is almost impossible to make anyone be- 

 lieve in these days, unless he has seen it for 

 himself, the progress that Veterinary Science 

 has made within the last fifty or sixty years. I 

 do not remember much of the old farrier but 

 I heard a good deal about him in my boyhood's 

 days and occasionally an old man was pointed 

 out to me who had gained a greater or less 

 reputation — as the case might be — as a ' horse 

 doctor.' One old Yorkshireman was known as 

 old '' Slip and Pop " because he was never 

 called in to any horse or other animal that was 

 ailing without ' slipping ' a ball or drench into 

 him and ' popping ' on a plaster of sorts. The 

 ' poor old cow doctor ' as he was sometimes called 

 was I believe a very decent man and had implicit 

 confidence in himself, but he bore as much re- 

 semblance to the present veterinary surgeon as 

 the old Barber surgeon did to a modern London 

 specialist. 



Of course he did not kill all his patients. 



