y] 



GROOMING AND STABLE MANAGEMENT 



53 



with a rake into a long rope about six feet in 

 length, and then doubling this into two double 

 rows side by side, and working the remainder 

 in and out of these rows, forming a kind of mat 

 measuring about one foot by five inches. A 

 wooden scraper is necessary for scraping the 

 horse down when wet from rain or perspiration ; 

 this consists of a piece of thin wood, measuring 

 about eight inches by two inches and a quarter 

 of an inch in thickness, bent into an arc of a 

 circle whose radius is about one foot ; a handle 

 is sometimes fastened to this on the inner curve. 

 A mane and tail comb lightly to separate the 

 hairs, etc., and a pair of scissors, for trimming 

 purposes (which must never be used on the eye- 

 lashes, muzzle hairs or feelers, or the hair inside 

 the ears), are also needed. If the tail is kept 

 banged (as in P. 28, 29, 79, 80), tail-squaring 

 shears should be kept, which will cut the hair 

 evenly, a difficult matter with ordinary scissors. 

 209. Care of Legs. — The legs of the horse 

 require very careful attention, especially if they 

 have been strained in any way or if the horse is 

 not receiving regular and sufficient exercise. 

 Such a horse is very liable to suffer from puffed 

 legs above the fetlocks. This puffing (known as 

 filled legs) is owing to the blood becoming stag- 

 nant in the extremities of the limbs, due to want 

 of exercise, to exercise not being continued long 

 enough, to over-heating food (as beans and peas), 

 to bad circulation, and to strain or sprain. If a 

 horse stands idle for any length of time after 

 exercise, his legs are liable to become puffed. 

 Therefore a horse requires a couple of hours' 

 walking exercise on the day following a day's 

 hunting or other hard work. Filled legs are 

 reduced or prevented by cotton-wadding pres- 

 sure bandages and vigorous massaging. (See 

 P. 22e, /.) A horse that suffers from chronic 

 filled legs should have these bandages on for two 

 hours after work and during light exercise ; and 

 for two hours, following massaging, on a day 

 when he is not worked. The legs should be well 

 massaged for fifteen minutes against the lay of 

 the ooat (in the direction of the veins), on return 

 from work, before the bandages are put on. 

 Massaging is of no use unless done for about 

 fifteen minutes. On account of the hind extremi- 

 ties being farther away from the heart, they are 

 more liable to become filled. Unless the filling 

 is bad and of long duration, it will disappear, 

 or nearly so, upon exercise being given, but may 

 return after standing for some time in the stable. 

 Filled legs are more liable to become injured, 

 because the existence of such filling is due to 

 poor circulation, and, therefore, want of nutri- 

 tion to the tendons and ligaments, which will 

 not be able to resist strain so readily. 



210. The Coat. — Let us briefly consider the 

 coat. In physics we learn that a shiny body 

 reflects heat better than a dull one, and that a 

 light one reflects heat better than a dark one, and 



also that good reflectors are bad absorbers and 

 radiators. A shiny white coat will, therefore, 

 reflect cold the most but will radiate heat the 

 least. Therefore a white or light-coloured horse 

 will be able to stand cold better, especially if its 

 coat is well groomed. Of course, too much 

 grooming in cold weather will remove all the 

 dandruff and oil which tends to keep the horse 

 warm ; so that in reality a horse in very cold 

 weather requires very little brushing, but a lot 

 of polishing or massaging with a soft cloth to in- 

 crease the circulation and to produce a shine on 

 the outside of the coat. In the same way a 

 shiny white coat will reflect heat best and absorb 

 heat least ; thus he is cooler in the summer than 

 his black brother. We infer from this that a 

 black horse is unable to stand great heat, and I 

 find that this is the case ; Captain Hayes tells 

 us that his experience proves this also. We 

 always find a black horse's coat extremely hot if 

 exposed to the sun ; Nature has, however, made 

 provision for this by giving these animals an 

 extra supply of pigment in the epidermis, which 

 prevents the sun's rays from penetrating farther. 

 Besides the above properties the coat possesses 

 that of being an absorber of sweat, and hence 

 prevents over-evaporation and chill. 



The rate of growth of the coat varies, being 

 dependent on the temperature of its surround- 

 ings and on the amount of grooming that it gets. 

 I call to mind that in Alberta the horses which 

 we turned out for a whole winter grew coats of 

 hair two to three inches in length. These horses 

 pawed through the snow and ate the grass 

 underneath as well as the snow, and kept fat 

 and healthy without getting any extra feeding. 

 In the severest winters they were fed a little hay. 



It is very important that horses should be 

 protected from the direct rays of the sun ; heat 

 alone does not do them much harm. (See " Sun- 

 stroke," Sec. 615.) 



Clothing 



211. A horse, when at pasture or work, does 

 not require clothing, because sufficient heat is 

 produced by exercise, and if the weather is cold 

 Nature provides a thicker coat and extra fat 

 under the skin. Hence a horse should never be 

 worked in a blanket, particularly with a blanket 

 on under the harness. This is a common sight 

 with worn-out horses in the Jewish quarters of 

 some cities, and is no doubt done to hide the 

 sores. In wet weather a horse may be driven in 

 a waterproof loincloth or in a large waterproof 

 sheet as shown in P. 23c. In this type the reins 

 pass through a hole in the centre, so arranged 

 that the rain does not get through on to 

 the withers. Horses exposed to rain all day, 

 especially in cold weather, are saved much in- 

 convenience by the use of these sheets. I do not 

 recommend their use in mild countries such as 



