MODERN HORSE MANAGEMENT 



[CHAP. 



England, where it is always warm when it rains. 

 The old London 'bus horse would make his daily 

 journey soaked to the skin with nothing but a 

 collar on ; but had he worn a sheet of any kind 

 he could not have done his work. Rubber sheets 

 should not be used at any time for fast work, as 

 they will not allow for ventilation. A water- 

 proof sheet is better if lined with wool, which 

 will absorb the perspiration, but great care must 

 be taken to dry it thoroughly after use. 



When a horse comes into a stable he requires 

 clothing, partly because he stands still, and 

 partly because grooming removes the natural oil 

 and dandruff from the coat. Stables should, if 

 possible, be cool enough to admit the use of a 

 blanket ; hot stables are very unhealthy. (See 

 Chap. VIII.) Even in summer a light blanket is 

 often advisable at night. 



212. From the foregoing we learn that a dark, 

 rough blanket is warmer than a white, smooth, 

 shiny one. Apart from the reflecting and 

 radiating properties of the material, the heat- 

 conductive properties play an important part. 

 Iron conducts heat about five hundred times as 

 rapidly as wood, and flannels and felts conduct 

 heat far less rapidly than does wood. The 

 material must also possess sweat-absorbing pro- 

 perties. The material which best fulfils these 

 requirements is wool or flannel. For this reason 

 it is not advisable to put a cotton sheet next to 

 the horse with a wool blanket outside. This is 

 also inadvisable for another reason : clothing 

 produces warmth by enclosing air within its 

 various layers ; a cotton sheet would lie too close 

 to the horse and would not keep a layer of warm 

 air between itself and the horse. The looser the 

 material the warmer it will be ; it will also 

 allow for better ventilation and therefore will be 

 more healthy. Loosely-woven material becomes 

 less warm than closer-woven material when the 

 horse is exposed to cold wind, on account of it 

 being more porous. 



In P. 25a is shown a full suit of clothing, 

 which consists of quarter-sheet, breastcloth, 

 hood, roller, roller cloth and fillet strings (hang- 

 ing round the thighs). Fillet strings are not 

 generally left on mares while in the stable. The 

 suit may be made of jute or linen. The full 

 suit is generally used on racehorses in winter 

 for walking exercise or while travelling by train. 

 Extra clothing may be put on underneath, or the 

 whole suit may be made of warmer material. 

 The hood is attached under the neck and jowl 

 by tapes, which must be loose enough to allow 

 the horse to stretch his neck without breaking 

 the tapes. Unless the horse is sick, this will not 

 be used at night. Personally, I do not recom- 

 mend these suits, as they tend to weaken the 

 horse's power of resistance. Woollen clothing 

 must be kept scrupulously clean and must 

 never be put on to a strange horse, as ringworm 

 and mange are very easily spread in this manner. 



Cotton clothing is more easily kept clean by 

 being washed, and does not spread disease so 

 easily. With a very dirty horse a safe plan is 

 to put on a sheet first. 



213. Most horses are blanketed with one 

 blanket, which contains quarter-sheet and 

 breastcloth in one (called in England a rug). 

 Rugs should be made wholly of wool, and, when 

 washed, care should be taken not to allow them 

 to soak in warm water. A separate blanket 

 should be used at night and on Sunday, when 

 horses will lie down, partly so that the day 

 blanket can be kept clean and partly so that the 

 unused blanket can be aired. When horses are 

 at exercise the blankets should be aired and, if 

 possible, exposed to the sun. 



A roller is nearly always necessary to keep 

 the blanket in place. (See P. 22a.) This shows 

 thigh straps as used on service blankets, the 

 roller being part of the blanket; there is also 

 a heavy leather breaststrap. 



214. Blankets with thigh straps are absolutely 

 necessary for horses in bivouac to prevent the 

 possibility of the blankets being blown up by the 

 wind. If these straps are not provided, a loose 

 surcingle should be placed far back round the 

 horse's body, or a string can be tied around the 

 thighs, joining the corners of the blanket. 



The roller must be thickly padded on each 

 side of the spine to keep it from pressing on to 

 the spine, in the same way that the saddle is 

 kept off the spine. 



215. A blanket which is very warm is one 

 made of duck and lined with wool ; the duck 

 wears extremely well, whilst the wool keeps the 

 horse warm. Waterproof sheets must on no 

 account be used inside the stable, as they will 

 not allow for ventilation. Light clothing is 

 often used to keep a horse clean, especially white 

 horses. A horse, unless clipped, does not require 

 much clothing in a well-regulated stable, 

 because if it becomes used to much clothing, and 

 is taken outside and left standing, it will catch 

 cold. Some undipped horses do better without 

 any clothing. A racehorse is generally thickly 

 clothed in the stable, but when he goes out with- 

 out his clothing he is not kept standing. So, 

 although in a cool stable a horse generally 

 requires a medium blanket in the winter to 

 counteract his inactivity, he must not be 

 blanketed too heavily ; if he is, he will have to 

 be heavily blanketed when left standing outside. 



Loincloths (see P. 23a) are very useful and 

 serve as a good protection from loin chills. They 

 look neat and do not cause excessive perspiration. 

 Regarding the excessive use of clothing, an im- 

 portant point is that grooms are very fond of 

 using too much clothing, with the idea of making 

 the horse's coat shine better. This is very 

 wrong. A coat must be made to shine by 

 manual labour, i.e. good grooming ; a gloss that 

 is produced by heated stables or excessive use 



