90 DISEASES OF ANIMALS. 



Kicking is a worse habit. A groom of courage and 

 authority, sometimes threatening, and now and then 

 striking with a switch, will generally keep a kicking 

 horse in subjection. The strap is a good remedy 

 Take up a fore leg, and bend the knee till the foot 

 almost touches the elbow ; then apply a strap over the 

 fore arm and pastern; then he cannot kick; or the 

 exceptions are few. Change the legs each time. They 

 should be held up at first. Ketp out of the reach of a 

 kicking horse, or so near him that an attempt to kick 

 will be only a push. 



UTILITY OF DRESSING AND FRICTION 



It improves the appearance, and renders the hair 

 glossy and smooth. When the coat of a horse is in 

 good condition, it is a little oil)'', which causes it to shed 

 the water. The anointing matter is secreted by the 

 skin, and this secretion is much influenced by the 

 grooming. A want, or redundancy, of perspiration 

 injures the coat. Hence a horse that is often and 

 severely heated, needs much dressing to keep him in 

 tolerable plight. 



Grooming has an important effect on health, as well 

 as in the appearance. A healthy state of the skin is 

 very conducive to a healthy condition of the bowels and 

 lungs, as there is an intimate connection between them. 

 If, from a sudden cold, the pores of the skin become 

 closed, insensible perspiration is impeded in its usual 

 course, and the system becomes diseased. Hence the 

 importance of washing, bathing, and rubbing the body 

 of the human subject, and of currying, brushing, rub- 

 bing, and occasionally washing animals ; not only 

 horses, but all others. 



SHOEING. 



A smith who shod for the hunt, and who said that he 

 should have to shut up shop if a shoe was lost, as it 

 might cause the loss of a horse worth a thousand pounds, 

 fastened the shoe as follows : — As he drove the nails, he 



