INTERIOR ECONOMY AND SUPPLY 41 



purpose it is held in the hand not holding the latter. 

 It is very strange how many people seem ignorant 

 of the proper use of the curry-comb. So much is 

 this so, that a very popular, and, as a rule, most 

 correctly informed sporting library has, in its book 

 on hunting, the following sentence — *' Unless the 

 animal is very diligently curry-combed and brushed, 

 scurf will form, close the pores of the skin, and affect 

 the horse's health." 



"Brushed," of course, but "curry-combed" (!), 

 well, try it on with a thin-skinned, high-couraged 

 horse, and see what happens. Yet some so-called 

 grooms do think it should be used on the horse ; 

 but then, as has been remarked on page 39, their 

 ignorance is proverbial. 



Fact will again give us one or two instances. A 

 good and apparently knowledgable groom sees an 

 old blemish on a horse and says, " Ah, he must 

 have been bitten there by a snake when young, and 

 the hair has never grown." (!) Again, " What 

 beautiful small legs." (!) One more — a lady's 

 groom, sent to look at a horse with a view to 

 purchase it for her (one of the worst things to do, 

 by the way, unless you are very sure of your man), 

 says that his hocks are wrong, and when asked 

 to say where, points to the os calcis, and says, " It's 

 too long " (!). This worthy had not had his palm 

 greased, and he wanted to crab, but he made a bad 

 shot, for extra length in the os calcis means extra 

 leverage, and therefore increased power, in the 

 hock. 



