THE GROOM 129 



that system. In the old days of mails and coaches, we have 

 often passed whole strings of sheeted and hooded horses in the 

 environs of different hunting quarters, as we have whisked by 

 in the opening mist of early dawn. Six o'clock is the usually 

 prescribed stableman's hour for being with his horses, which 

 is two hours before daylight in winter. Doubtless the earlier 

 a man is at his stable the better, to see that all is right and 

 quiet ; but we think it would be better both for horse and 

 man, if, after setting things fair and straight, the latter 

 returned to his breakfast, and took his horses out after sun- 

 rise. 



Sheeting and hooding horses at exercise to the extent we 

 generally see them, and then sending them out next day with 

 only a saddle on, seems almost an experiment on health. 

 Again, how seldom we see them clothed according to the state 

 of the weather and the season of the year. What is once put 

 on is generally kept on. It is a good rule in hunting stables, 

 where horses have to lie out often, to clothe lightly at home. 

 An extra rug or sheet will then tell should the Groom get into 

 a bad, cold, or unaired stable. 



Galloping horses to get them into condition is a dangerous 

 process, and one in which, we believe, more are lamed and 

 broken down than by regular work in the hunting field. 

 Taking a horse into a field by himself, oppressed with fat and 

 clothing, and kicking and bucketing him about till the sweat 

 runs down in streams, and he is fit to drop, does seem an 

 abusfe of the noble animal that nothing can justify. The horse 

 does not know what it means, what you are about, or what 

 he is expected to do. Instead of the quick, self-containing, 

 energetic stride that he takes in the excitement of hunting, he 

 blobs and flounders about, drops his legs and rolls like a 

 bullock till the senseless brute on his back either tires himself 

 or feels the horse failing under him. In sweating, as in 

 ordinary exercising, the compression system — the putting an 



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