890 THE EXTERIOR OF THE HORSE. 



lighter. First the hairs which surround the external orifice of the ear, 

 and then those on the inner face of the auricular cartilage, are cut 

 with the scissors, care being taken to leave no visible traces of the 

 cutting. 



We have seen that the mane and the forelock are plaited in order 

 to give them a good direction, and that the thickness of the hairs of 

 the former is diminished by means of a comb or a special clutch, which 

 pulls out a certain number. 



As to the arrangement of the tail, it is done in the same manner 

 whenever it is deemed desirable to make it smaller. Very often, how- 

 ever, the hairs are cut transversely. They are grasped firmly with one 

 hand near their extremity, and with the other are cut evenly with the 

 scissors or a knife, either at the level of the point of the hocks, or 

 higher up or a little lower down. 



Light-draught horses and (in France) army horses are the only ones 

 in which the hairs of the members are cut ; in well-bred horses the 

 hairs of the members are usually so short that such a procedure is not 

 necessary ; in the heavy-draught horse they are arranged in a particular 

 way, of which we will speak farther on. 



To dress the hairs, a horn comb, or, better still, a comb made of 

 brass, and -a pair of curved scissors, are employed. The operator pro- 

 ceeds in the same way as a barber in cutting a person's hair. He intro- 

 duces the comb between the hairs from below upward, commencing at 

 the coronet and passing upward. The difficulty, which is considerable, 

 consists in thus dressing the coronet, the pastern, the fetlock, and the 

 canon without leaving any traces of the cuts of the scissors. Care 

 must also be taken not to wound the skin with the teeth of the comb, 

 and it is important not to remove the hairs around the coronary band, 

 nor to shorten them too much in the fold of the pastern, where they 

 protect these parts against the irritating action of dust and mud. 

 Dealers are not only skilful in dressing the hairs artistically and 

 shortening them to a suitable degree, according to the quality of the 

 subjects, but they also excel in concealing, by cutting them obliquely, 

 below the knee, the defect which results from a feeble development of 

 the tendons. A practised eye will readily detect this fraud ; it can only 

 deceive the inattentive or the inexperienced. 



In certain heavy-draught horses the hairs of the extremities are so 

 abundant and of such length, thickness, and coarseness, that it is often 

 found necessary to shorten them so as to render the inferior part of 

 the animal's members less heavy. With this object the dealer makes 

 use of a very sharp triangular and short knife. The member to be 



