424 THE HORSE. 



is given by tlie wisp. The whalebone brush is sometimes too 

 coarse, and man j horses cannot bear it at anytime, while others 

 can suffer it only in winter. After the mud has been removed 

 with this brush, the matted hair parted by the currycomb, and 

 the horse dusted all over with the wisp, his feet are washed, the 

 soles picked, the shoes examined, the legs and heels well rub- 

 bed, partly by the hand and partly bj- the wisp, and the mane 

 and tail combed. In the best stables he is well dressed with 

 the bristle brush before he goes to work. In other stables the 

 usual mode of removing the mud is by — 



Washing. — When the horse is very dirty he is usually wash- 

 ed outside the stable ; his belly is scraped, and the remainder of 

 the mud is washed oif at once by the application of water. 

 Some clean the body before they wash the legs ; but that is 

 only when there is not much mud about the horse. They do so 

 that he may go into the stable quite clean. He soils his feet 

 and legs by stamping the ground when his body is being clean- 

 ed. It matters little whether the dressing commence with the 

 body or with the legs, but when the legs are washed the last 

 thing, they are generally left undried. In washing, a sponge 

 and a water-brush are employed. Some use a mop, and this is 

 called the lazy method ; it is truly the trick of a careless sloven ; 

 it wets the legs but does not clean them. The brush goes to 

 the roots of the hair, and removes all the sand and mud, with- 

 out doing which it is worse than useless to apply any water. 

 The sponge is employed for drying the hair, for soaking up and 

 wiping away the loose water. Afterward, the legs and all the 

 parts that have been washed, are rendered completely dry by 

 rubbing with the straw-wisp, the rubber, and the hand. Among 

 valuable horses this is always done ; wherever the legs have 

 little hair about them, and that little cannot be properly dried 

 after washing, no washing should take place. 



Wet Legs. — It is a very common practice, because it is easy, 

 to wash the legs ; but none, save the best of stablemen, will be 

 at the trouble of drying them ; they are allowed to dry of them- 

 selves, and they become excessively cold. Evaporation com- 

 mences ; after a time a process is set up for producing heat 

 sufficient to carry on evaporation, and to maintain the tempera- 

 ture of the skin. Before this process can be fully established, 



