TAKING UP FEO!d GHASS. 257 



legs from swelling, or his feet getting too hot. The 

 temperature should be kept up and increased by degrees, 

 until it is seen to take the requisite effect upon the 

 horse's coat, by causing the long hair to fall off, and a 

 renewal of short hair in its place. This should be en- 

 couraged and carefully watched by the groom, or, if he 

 allows the temperature to get too high, the hair will 

 fall off in patches, and leave the blue cuticle as bare as 

 the paper I am writing upon indeed I have, in the course 

 of my experience, seen horses without a particle of hair 

 on their bodies (except the mane and tail), caused by 

 taking them up from grass and placing them at once in 

 a hot stable. I may mention an instance of a clever 

 horse-coper in the midland counties, who prepared a 

 horse by these means, and afterwards sold him at a great 

 price to a showman, who exhibited him as the celebrated 

 " blue horse ;" and a queer-looking animal he was too. 



The clothing should also be very light at first, and 

 the grooming done with a soft brush, or it will cause 

 irritation and itching of the skin. Physicking in mo- 

 deration will also materially assist the conditioning 

 process, by first giving the horse a mild dose of physic 

 when he comes from grass ; but if his dieting be care- 

 fully attended to, as above recommended, there will be 

 little, if any, necessity for physic afterwards. The less 

 physic a horse has the better ; it only weakens his 

 digestive powers, and still further creates a necessity 

 for it, until at last the horse cannot live without it, and 

 will nearly always be amiss, 



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