SHEDDING THE COAT. 319 



skin by grooming is of no great importance. If, on the con- 

 trary, his work demands the highest possible efficiency in his 

 organs of breathing, as in the case of a racehorse or hunter, 

 any relief, however small, which the lungs can obtain from the 

 functional activity of the skin, will of course be an advantage. 

 When an animal is deprived of a sufficiency of exercise, the 

 lungs will remain more or less inactive, and consequently the 

 skin should be stimulated, so that health may be maintained. 

 As grooming is a useful and thoroughly safe means for stimu- 

 lating the skin, we should fully utilise it in default of exercise. 

 The richer and more abundant the food, the larger will be the 

 quantity of waste material for the lungs, skin and kidneys to 

 eliminate. Hence, the less the work and the larger the ration 

 of nutritious food a horse gets, the more grooming will he 

 require. 



5. To keep the coat short. This can best be done by hand- 

 rubbing (p. 323). 



6. To promote health. This object of grooming, as we have 

 already seen, has special reference to stabled horses which are 

 highly fed and get too little exercise. Even if the work be 

 sufficiently hard to produce fatigue, it will almost always be 

 compressed within too short a period. Consequently, the 

 unnatural deprivation of exercise which a stabled horse as a 

 great rule has to submit to, during a large portion of the 

 twenty-four hours, and the impurities of the atmosphere 

 which he usually breathes, make grooming a necessity to 

 health in almost all cases. Its good effect in this direction is 

 amply proved by experience. I think we may conclude from 

 the foregoing considerations that friction and not brushing is 

 the most important factor in grooming. 



SHEDDING THE COAT. 



Nature provides the horse with a fine and a comparatively 

 short coat for summer wear ; and a coarser and longer one for 



