BANDAGING THE LEGS. 425 



tlie water has all evaporated ; then the heat accumulates ; in- 

 flammation succeeds, and often runs so far as to produce morti- 

 fication. To avoid these evils, the legs must either be dried 

 after washing, or they must not be washed at all. 



Among horses that have the fetlocks and the legs well 

 clotlied with long and strong hair, it is not necessary to be so 

 particular about drying the legs ; the length and the thickness 

 of the hair check evaporation. This process is not permitted to 

 go on so rapidly ; the air and the vapor are entangled among 

 the hair ; they cannot get away, and of course cannot carry off 

 the heat so rapidly as from a naked heel. But for all this, it is 

 possible to make the legs, even of those hairy-heeled horses, so 

 cold as to produce inflammation. And when these horses have 

 the legs trimmed bare, they are more liable to grease than the 

 lighter horse of faster work. But the greatest number of 

 patients with grease occur where the legs and heels are trim- 

 med, washed, and never properly dried. There is no grease 

 where there is good grooming, and not much where the legs are 

 well covered with hair. It is true that fat or plethoric horses are 

 very liable to cracks and moisture of the heels; but though it 

 may not be easy, yet it is quite possible for a good groom to 

 prevent grease even in these horses. 



I am not objecting to washing under all circumstances. It 

 is a bad practice among naked-heeled horses, only when the 

 men will not or cannot make the legs dry. In a gentleman's 

 stable the legs ought to be washed, but they ought also to be 

 thoroughly dried before the horse is left. It is the evapora- 

 tion, or the cold produced by evaporation, that does the mis- 

 chief. 



I greatly approve of washing the legs with warm water, 

 hard rubbing them for a few moments so as to strip out the 

 superfluous water, and then instantly applying dry and warm 

 flannel bandages from the fetlock to the knee. The legs next 

 morning come out beautifully dry and clean. 



Bathing. — This name may be given to the operation of wash- 

 ing the horse all over. Where possible, and not forbidden by 

 the owner, a lazy or ignorant groom always performs it in the 

 neighboring river or pond. Some take the horse into the water 

 till it is up to his belly, and others swim him into the depths, 



