478 The Book of the Horse. 



should be so ; for in proportion as the sl<in is saturated with sweat, so will it be liable to 

 irritation." (D.C.) 



Of course it is taken for granted tiiat hunting saddles are carefully dried every day, and 

 examined to see that they do not require re-stuffing. 



The hair must be very carefully removed from the hunter's legs, in order that cuts, 

 bruises, and thorns may be noticed when the legs are examined after hunting, except the 

 long lock of hair at the point of the fetlock joint ; if this is cut off the symmetry of the fore-leg 

 is destroyed. Removing the hairs of the leg about the fetlock requires judgment and skill > 

 superfluous hairs must be pulled out of the tuft. I have never seen the legs of a hunter so 

 well trimmed as by a child under ten years old, the son of a horsebreaker. 



After clipping or singeing, it is a sound practice to give the horse a sweating exercise, 

 then to wash him all over with soap and water, dry him thoroughly by a good strapping 

 and give him an extra blanket ; then he will be much less liable to take cold than in his 

 long coat. 



A special drawer should be reserved for the clipping and singeing tools — both are required 

 to finish a horse — that they may be packed away properly, and be ready in good order 

 when wanted the following year. India-rubber tubes are less liable to get out of order than 

 the more expensive gutta-percha. 



Horses that have once been clipped or singed must have the operation repeated every 

 year, or they will look worse than ever. In the spring of the year, when horses are moult- 

 ing, especially if they have been clipped or singed, they require some extra food. I have 

 found that a pound of linseed-cake to each horse, in addition to the regular allowance of 

 corn, and five or six pounds of carrots daily, greatly promote the change of coat in the spring. 

 Horses which are well fed get rid of their winter hair a month sooner than those kept on a 

 short allowance of corn. 



But, although the short coat obtained by clipping or singeing saves a groom a great 

 deal of work, it is never in a well-regulated stable allowed to be the substitute for regular 

 strapping. 



Singeing must never be trusted to any one not thoroughly proficient, as if, through care- 

 lessness or clumsiness, the skin is scorched, it will look rough for a long time. 



"A horse with a long coat, if soaked with rain in going to cover, remains wet until dried 

 by a sharp gallop. He then sweats, remains wet, cold, miserable for the rest of the day, 

 and ten to one is not three-parts dry the next morning, and has been wasting from evaporation 

 all night." 



" I once," says Mr. Digby Collins, " was persuaded to , ride a horse, hunting, with the 

 long shaggy coat he brought from the green field, and sacrificed a very hardy excellent horse 

 to the experiment. He always got beat after going well over about a dozen fields, and finally 

 turned roarer, and went blind." 



HUNTING-DRESS, HUNTING-BOX, AND HUNTING-DINNERS. 



To be well and suitably dressed, according to the country and the season, is a \-ery 

 important matter in the battle of hunting life. 



Our great-grandfathers dressed for the chase in a sensible, if not an elegant style according 

 to our modern notions, in large roomy horsemen's coats, long-decp-flapped waistcoats, stout 

 and capacious buckskin breeches, and serviceable if somewhat clumsy boots, which came 

 well over the breeches. 



