TESTING THE GROOMING. 349 



to the light. Failing a net, screens of various kinds can be 

 used. Dirt in a stable has a great attraction for flies. The 

 smoke of burning dried cow-dung or burning dried horse-dung 

 is often employed in India for driving flies away from horses. 

 The use of peat moss appears to have a good effect in pre- 

 venting flies from entering stables. I do not know whether 

 this effect is due to the smell of this litter, or to its dark 

 colour. 



TESTING THE EFFICIENCY OF THE GROOMING. 



A good plan of finding out if a horse's coat is clean, is to 

 go up to the side of the neck upon which the mane falls, and 

 after turning the mane over to the other side, to examine 

 its roots to see if there is any dandruff present. If the 

 horse stands this test, the roots of the hairs of the tail may 

 be inspected with a similar object. Finally, the point of a 

 fore-finger may be run over the croup and ribs against 

 the grain of the hair. The line or lines thus drawn will 

 leave a streak of dandruff. It is no uncommon occurrence 

 to find in a badly groomed horse, that although the upper 

 surface of the mane and tail may have been neatly brushed 

 down with a wet water-brush, the hairs underneath are full 

 of dandruff. Any roughness at the back of the pasterns, 

 to say nothing of cracked heels or grease, will show that 

 the grooming has been faulty ; and the presence of thrush 

 will have to be put down to the debit side of the groom, 

 unless the shoeing smith has allowed the heels to grow much 

 too long, in which case, both men will probably be to blame. 

 A want of gloss on the coat, marks left on the legs by the 

 strings of bandages, and an irregular condition of the mane 

 or tail, will be presumptive evidence that the groom is either 

 lazy or incapable. 



