THE HORSE. 105 



from experience. I have never played at soldiers 

 since my boyhood. 



Clothing is unnecessary during the summer sea- 

 son to all descriptions, excepting the race horse ; yet 

 the custom has generally prevailed with respect to 

 the saddle and coach horse, excepting perhaps in the 

 extreme heats of the dog days ; it is, however, abso- 

 lutely necessary in all cold or chilly seasons, with horses 

 that are expected to exhibit condition. The usual 

 suit is a kersey sheet and quarter piece, or only a 

 sheet, girded with a broad roller ; this roller, our tea- 

 kettle grooms, in former days, were in the habit of 

 girting so tight, that the horse stood in constant pain, 

 with the sage purpose, in their phrase, of " getting up 

 his carcase ;" the evil of carrying such a one, grant- 

 ing it an evil, can only be safely remedied by dry 

 meat and regular exercise. Thanks to the common 

 sense of modern times, this, and scores of other most 

 ridiculous, barbarous, and useless knowing tricks, by 

 which, even more than by his labour, the life of this * 

 most useful animal was embittered, have happily 

 become, in a great measure, obsolete and forgotten in 

 our stables. 



All coach and cart horses, whilst abroad upon duty 

 and standing still, during cold rains, fogs, or piercing 

 winds, should have a substantial dry covering thrown 

 over their loins ; and if in such weather they can be 

 kept from standing exposed to a current of chilling 

 air, for example, within or opposite to a gateway, it 

 may haply prevent a cold and running at the nose, 

 caught in one minute, which may require one month 



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