DRESSING OR GROOMING. 113 



allowed for the white leg and washed quarters to become 

 dry before an attempt is made to groom them. On the 

 return from breakfast, dressing or grooming may be com- 

 menced. 



The thorough-bred groom or stableman may not be 

 taught much from us, as to the utility and manner of 

 grooming horses ; but unfortunately all persons employed 

 in our stables, public and private, are not proficient, nor 

 are they of the most intelligent of our citizens even in 

 regard to this their calling, which most have adopted not 

 from choice, but necessity. The owners of horses and 

 employers of stablemen with us are mostly business men, or 

 merchants, who have little or no time or thought to give 

 to the stable and its management, and moreover as a whole 

 are not well " posted" as to stable requirements or necessi- 

 ties, and are often imposed upon because of their want of 

 knowledge. These we now address, when discussing how 

 and when the affairs of their stables should be attended to, 

 together with the effects upon horses, harness, &c., of such 

 care as is bestowed upon them. 



Grooming may be properly defined the cleaning and 

 dressing of the external form or outer skin of the horse, 

 but by lexicographers it includes feeding also. Of this, 

 however, we have already spoken, and therefore will only 

 allude to '■'•cleaning^' a horse, which is performed in as 

 many different ways as there are different degrees in its 

 perfection, and final effects or results upon the horse. The 

 full or grand result of a perfect system of grooming horses 



