RACKING AND DRESSING 87 



have known some horses who would not feed until they had 

 drunk. We therefore advise that this time of watering be 

 not obstinately adhered to; but tliat it be made to suit 

 the appetites of the horses themselves. A careful groom 

 will study the peculiarities of each horse, and then his own 

 judgment will be his best guide. 



You may now give his stable a slight " set fair " ; that is, 

 throw the dung off the litter, but do not disturb that just 

 under him to raise the ammonia from his having staled 

 thereon. We are supposing that you mean to give the horse 

 a thorough '* dressing " before he goes out. If, however, 

 time does not serve, or there are other reasons for post- 

 poning this till his return to stable, you may "muck out" 

 as hereafter described. We will now describe the important 

 operation of "dressing," and would first impress upon the 

 reader the fact that it is not only to remove soils and make 

 the coat glossy that we "dress" a horse, but that the 

 process is most important, when diligently carried out, for 

 ensuring the health of the animal, by the life-giving 

 excitement of the whole exhalant surface of the body. 



Scales of scurf — dandrifi' — are constantly in process of 

 generation over the whole surface of the animal's body ; and 

 the act of currying, brushing, and dressing clears oif those 

 scales, and stimulates those exhalant and inhalant pores by 

 which excretory and noxious particles are thrown out, and 

 air and moisture imbibed. Itching, irritation — and con- 

 sequent inflammation — surfeit, and thirst, with a train of 

 minor evils, are kept aloof from well-fed and warmly clothed 

 horses by a diligent application of " elbow-grease " ; for able 

 physiologists have shown that the skin not only throws off 

 impurities, but absorbs pure water and atmospheric air, at 

 need, when kept in healthy condition. The observant 

 horse-owner may easily satisfy himself of the fact that a 

 well-groomed horse has more spirit, cheerfulness, and 

 endur>ince than an undressed one, by a few days' experi- 

 ment. With horses much in stable, too, periodical friction 

 is exercise without fatigue. The curious reader may find in 

 " The Book of the Farm " an account of the superior thriving 

 of some pigs who were regularly curried, over those in a stye 

 left to their own nasty ways. The writer, however, observes 

 in defence of poor piggy, that he contracts many of those 

 bad habits from confinement and domestication ; and that 

 the wild pig is as cleanly an animal as need be — currying 



