HOKSES AND HOUNDS. 41 



sion for more than one of these, although I have often seen two 

 used, more for the purpose of ke€i)ing the horse's coat fine, than 

 for any other. This coddling is not only of no service wliatever 

 to the horse, but decidedly prejudicial to him. The treatment 

 of horses by grooms generally tends only to the one thing — their 

 great object — the smart appearance of the horse's coat ; and to 

 this almost every other consideration is to give way. What 

 should we think of a man wearing his great coat and hat in the 

 house, and putting them oif when he went out on a wet day? 

 The keeping a horse burdened with a quantity of warm clothing 

 in a hot stable is just as reasonable a practice. Each horse 

 should have to his wardrobe, however, two rugs at least, if not 

 three, that one may be always dry. The cloth which is thrown 

 over him when he first returns to the stable wet and dirty, is 

 not proper for him to sleep in, and a clean one should be kept 

 by the saddle room fire, ready to be put on, when he is done up 

 for the night. 



In some establishments there is a cleaning room set apart for 

 this purpose, where the horses, when very dirty, are scrubbed 

 and washed ; it has certainly an advantage in keeping the stable 

 more free from dust, but it should be protected from cold 

 draughts of air. In warm weather, there can be no great harm 

 done in cleaning a horse outside the stable door, provided he 

 has a loose rug thrown over him, to prevent his too suddenly 

 cooling; but the practice of stripping a horse at once when 

 heated, and tying him outside the stable without any clothing 

 at all, is most injurious. Knowing the abuses to which this 

 liberty is so often exposed, I never allowed a horse of mine to 

 be placed outside the door mider any pretence, and the infringe- 

 ment of this rule was certain dismissal. Neither should I per- 

 mit any horse in the winter season, after a Imrd day's work, to 

 be removed into the cleaning room. 



Horses which are thus artificially treated in hot stables, and 

 with warm clothing, are, of course, much more liable to catch 

 cold than those which are almost used in a state of nature, such 

 as cart horses, and from their sudden exposure to a cold atmo- 

 sphere, when heated, arise colds, coughs, chills, and sometimes, 

 in consequence of these, farcy and glanders. These evil effects 

 may generally be traced to checked perspiration, and those who 

 have kept horses must be aware that a severe cold caught in the 

 winter months, is not so easily got rid of again, and often ends 

 in chronic cough. Numbers of horses fall victims to inflam- 

 mation, produced by sudden exposure to cold, and by having 

 cold water given to them when in a heated state. I witnessed 

 the fatal efi'ects of the latter a short time since with a young 



