64 THE HORSE : ITS KEEP AND MANAGEMENT. 



should be washed when they come in all of a lather on 

 a hot summer's day. My experience has been it is a good 

 thing to wash them directly they come in, while they are 

 hot, with just chilled water, and scrape them down with an 

 iron hoop, so that all the water is scraped out of the coat 

 afterwards. A little brass scraper is sold by saddlers, which 

 would be better than the hoop for the purpose. This 

 scraper can also be used for all kinds of horses, when they 

 come in wet on a rainy day, to get the water out of their 

 coats, then they dry very quickly, as if left the evaporation 

 of the water takes very much longer, and some horses 

 occasionally take cold if left in this way. Then if they 

 are well rinsed, and rubbed over with a sponge and wash 

 leather, they dry much quicker than if they had never been 

 wetted at all. As a rule, the perspiration from a horse is 

 of a greasy nature, the water washes all that out, they 

 dry much quicker, and are more comfortable afterwards. 



Bandages should next be put on the legs at once, and 

 if they are accustomed to have a cloth put on them whilst 

 standing, one should be thrown over them directly they are 

 dry. If the weather is at all chilly when a horse is washed 

 it should always have a rug put on at once, at the same 

 time taking care to put a good piece of straw on the horse's 

 back under the cloth. This prevents the animal taking 

 a chill, as the straw absorbs the evaporation. In some 

 instances the rug gets wet and is not dried when it is 

 taken off. If this is put upon the horse again damp, it is 

 liable to give it a chill. 



Some horses have such long coats during the winter, 



