106 THE HORSE. 



to remove. The hood and breastplate complete the 

 suit above referred to ; but these last are only used in 

 sickness to horses generally in or out of the stable. 

 Hacks kept in high condition, and hunters, are mostly 

 exercised in their clothes ; but since they must be ex- 

 posed to the weather in actual service, it probably 

 lni^ht be full as well to accustom them to its vicissi- 

 tudes, by the grooms taking them out without cloth- 

 ing, since they are seldom exercised abroad in wet 

 weather. 



Some horses, either from inferior breeding, consti- 

 tutional peculiarity, disease, or neglect, retain a rough 

 and lonor coat a considerable time after their intro- 

 duction into a good stable ; this troublesome eyesore 

 induced some enterprising and hasty gentleman in the 

 country, to revive the old and worthily forgotten 

 practice of clipping or burning the coats of these 

 hirsute animals, so taking time by the forelock. Here, 

 suppose the horse not naturally bristly, in sound 

 health, but only out of condition, good grooming and 

 keep will soon lay his coat smooth, without either 

 the trouble of barbering, or the after risk of catching 

 cold ; otherwise, should the eyesore arise from breed- 

 ing or disease, he may be sheared annually like another 

 sheep, but not quite to so beneficial a purpose ; this 

 farce in my time has been got up, and represented a 

 few times, and then damned. Twenty years hence, 

 some sporting wag may reintroduce it as a novelty. 



It would be useless to be very particular as to the 

 manoeuvres or handiwork habitually observed in the 

 regular dressing of a horse, they differ very little, if 



