CHAPTER IV. 



Preventable Hardships Due to Our Climate 

 and Environments 



THE American climate is liable to so many 

 and to such sudden and violent fluctuations, 

 that the careless, ignorant, or unaccustomed horse- 

 keeper is apt to inflict much needless discomfort and 

 suffering upon his horses, and this in the most 

 unintentional way. While the trying period of 

 summer affords especial occasion for negligence, 

 the sterner time of winter is no less prolific of such 

 incidents. 



Beginning with the trials common to the winter 

 solstice, one finds that inattention to clipped horses, 

 or to those wearing coats of undipped hair is very 

 common; as is the fashion of clipping many animals 

 which, being used at slow work, should never have 

 been thus operated upon at all. The carriage-horse 



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