416 THE HOKSE. 



renders the coat short, fine, glossy, and smooth. The coat of a 

 horse in blooming condition Is always a little oily. The hair 

 rejects water. The anointing matter which confers this property 

 is secreted by the skin, and the secretion seems to be much 

 influenced by good grooming. Slow-working horses often have 

 skins which a fox-hunter would admire, although they may be 

 receiving very little care from the gi-oom. But the food of these 

 horses lias a good deal to do with the skin, and their work is 

 not of that kind which impairs the beauty of a fine glossy coat. 

 They drink much water, and they get warm boiled food every 

 night. They do not often perspire a great deal, but they always 

 perspire a little. Fast-working horses have hard food, a limited 

 allowance of water ; and every day, or every other day, they 

 are drenched in perspiration, which forbids constant perspira- 

 tion, and which carries off, or washes away the oily matter. 

 Hence, unless a horse that is often and severely heated, be well 

 groomed, have his skin stimulated, and his hair polished by the 

 brush, he will never look well. His coat has a dead, dim ap- 

 pearance, a dry, soft feel. To the hand the hair feels like a 

 coarse, dead fur; the most beautiful coat often assumes this 

 state in one or two days. Some horses always look ill, and no 

 grooming will make them look well ; but all may be improved, 

 or rendered tolerably decent, except at moulting time. Dress- 

 ing is not the only means by which the coat is* beautified. 

 There are other processes, of which I shall speak jjresently. 



Among stablemen, dressing is performed only for the sake of 

 the horse's personal appearance. They are not aware that it has 

 any influence upon health, and therefore they generally neglect 

 the skin of a horse that is not at work. In the open fields, the 

 skin is not loaded with the dust and perspiration which it con- 

 tracts in the stable, or loose box ; and all the cleaning it obtains, 

 or needs, is performed by the rain, and by the friction it receives 

 when the horse rolls upon the ground, or rubs himself against a 

 tree. He comes home with a very ugly and a very dirty coat, 

 but the skin is cleaner tlian if the horse had been all the time in 

 a stable. 



Want of dressing, whether it affect the general health or 

 not, produces lice and mange. Mange may arise from causes 

 independent of a neglected skin, but it very rarely visits a well- 



