150 HOW TO STABLE AND GROOM A HORSE. 



remedying and alleviatiog any slight slip, or casual strain. 

 The mode of dressing, when the horse is brought in, 

 wet, weary, hot, dirty and exhausted, is nearly identical. 

 The ears should be first stripped and pulled, and the head 

 made comfortable. The dry dirt should be scraped from 

 the legs and belly. The legs should be plunged into tepid 

 water, and have all the dirt washed carefully away ; they 

 should be then carefully dry-rubbed with wisps of clean 

 straw, and tightly swathed in flannel bandages, steeped in 

 water as warm as the hand will bear. The whole neck 

 and body should then — or, if there be sufficient force of 

 hands in the stable — at the same time while the legs are 

 being arranged, be thoroughly rubbed, till perfectly clean, 

 dry, and in a glow of vigorous animal heat, with straw 

 wisps. After this they should be lightly curried, brushed, 

 and arranged; and then, nor until then, the clothes may be 

 put on, the animal fed, his stall well bedded and littered 

 down, and himself left to his repose, which, however hard 

 his day's work may have been, will, if these precautions 

 be taken, be both soft and light. 



This, in brief, is the whole theory of grooming. It re- 

 quires care, dexterity, exactness, and honest application of 

 work. It cannot be procured without some expense ; or 

 relied on, without the active and intelligent supervision of 

 the master ; but without it no stables can be in order, — 

 no horses healthy, happy, or in condition for doing the 

 work for the performance of which they are kept. 



As of feeding and stabling, it may be said of grooming, 

 without fear of contradiction, that, for every dollar ex- 

 pended, the horse-owner will receive in the results the 

 recompense of, at least, a hundred; and that without 

 attending to this essential branch of stable economy, he 

 can never expect to be satisfied with, much less proud of, 

 the performances of his horses, and the state of his stables. 



