BLANKETS 293 



culty may be partly obviated by substituting a dry 

 blanket one or two hours later. If the blanket is not 

 used until the steam and surface heat have measurably 

 subsided, which it usually does in from fifteen to 

 twenty minutes, the hair will be dry and smooth the 

 following: morning, when the scurff may be removed 

 easily by the use of a stiff brush. The use of a stable 

 blanket, as well as one for the street, cannot be recom- 

 mended too highly. The former should be of light 

 material, and not so large as the latter. A blanket of 

 some loosely woven cheap material may be used from 

 June to September, and the ordinary light winter 

 stable blanket for the rest of the year. Stable blankets 

 may be dispensed with in hot weather if flies are 

 excluded by screens or by darkening the stables by the 

 use of curtains; but they should be used in the fall, as 

 soon as the nights become cool. Such early use will 

 arrest, too, in a marked degree, the growth of hair both 

 in length and density. The coat of hair being kept 

 short and comparatively thin, the horse does not sw r eat 

 so profusely, when driven, as he would if the stable 

 blanket is not used until the beginning of winter. 

 The early use of stable blankets usually obviates the 

 need of clipping the horse. However, some horses 

 have such dense and long coats of hair that health 

 and ease of grooming require that the clipping be 

 performed, but such woolly horses are rare. In any 

 case, the clipping should be done before midwinter, 

 not in March, the most trying month in the year for 

 a driving-horse. For some time after the horse is 

 clipped, both stable and street blanket should be 



