STABLE OPERATIONS. 101 



are trimmed, washed, and never properly dried. There is no 

 grease where there is good grooming, and not much where the 

 legs are well covered with hair. It is true that fat or plethoric 

 horses are very liable to cracks and moisture of the heels ; 

 but though it may not be easy, yet it is quite possible for a 

 good groom to prevent grease even in these horses. 



The proprietors of coaching-studs, a great many of them, 

 find that the strappers have not time nor inclination to dry the 

 legs after washing, and they prohibit the operation altogether. 

 The men, nevertheless, are very fond of washing ; it is easier 

 to wash the legs clean than to brush them clean ; and laziness 

 is never without its plea. It is said that washing has nothing 

 to do with grease or cracked heels, and that these diseases 

 will occur where no washing is ever allowed. This is partly 

 true, but the grease arises from the same cause ; though the 

 legs are not washed, yet they are not dried when the horses 

 come in with them wet ; hence the great number of cases in 

 wet winters. It is also said that if the legs be wet when the 

 horses come in, washing can not make them wetter : though 

 the legs be wet yet they are warm, and if they must be wash- 

 ed, it should be with water warm as the skin. 



I am not objecting to washing under all circumstances. It 

 is a bad practice among naked-heeled horses, only when the 

 men will not or can not make the legs dry. In a gentleman's 

 stable the legs ought to be washed, but they ought also to be 

 thoroughly dried before the horse is left. It is the evapora- 

 tion, or the cold produced by evaporation, that does the mis- 

 chief. In a cart-horse stable there is less chance of washing 

 doing any harm ; the long hair preventing the legs from be- 

 coming very cold ; still, if grease, swelled legs, or cracked 

 heels, occur often, either washing must be prohibited, or the 

 legs must be dried after it, or the washing must be performed, 

 at other times. In a farm-stable, the man, after working the 

 horse all day, can not be expected to bestow an hour or two 

 upon the legs at night ; but he may forbear washing when he 

 finds that grease is the consequence. He may brush off the 

 mud, when it is dry, and a wisp or a sponge will take away 

 the loose water which the horse brings from his work. If 

 the legs become itchy and scurfy under this treatment, they 

 may be washed once or twice a-week with soapy warm wa- 

 ter, well applied, by means of a brush that will reach the 

 skin ; and this washing, particularly in cold weather, should 

 be performed before the horse goes to his work, not after it. 

 While he is in motion the legs wall not become cold. The 



9* 



