OPERATIONS OF DECORATION. 113 



are so seldom in the charge of men who can perform it proper- 

 ly, that m general it is better to leave it undone. 



Trimming the Heels and Legs.* — The hair of the fetlock, 

 the hollow of the pastern, and the posterior aspect of the legs, 

 is longer on heavy draught-horses than on those of finer bone. 

 It is intended to keep the legs warm, and perhaps in some 

 degree to defend them from external violence. It becomes 

 much shorter and less abundant after the horse is stabled, kept 

 warm, well fed, and well groomed. The simple act of wash- 

 ing the legs, or rubbing them, tends to make the hair short and 

 thin, and to keep it so. Nevertheless, it is a very common 

 practice, especially in coaching-stables, to clip this hair away 

 almost close to the root. Cart-horses very rarely have the 

 heels trimmed ; well-bred horses seldom require it. The 

 hand-rubbing which the legs and heels of these horses re- 

 ceive, keeps the hair short, and it is never very long even 

 without hand-rubbingf. 



The heels are trimmed in three different ways : the most 

 common and the easiest is to clip away all the long hair, near 

 or close to the roots ; another way is to switch the heels, that 

 is, to shorten the hair without leaving any mark of the scissors 

 — the groom seizes the hair and cuts off a certain portion in 

 the same manner that he shortens a switch tail ; the third 

 mode is to pull the long hairs out by the roots. Switching 

 and pulling, which is little practised, are generally confined to 

 the foot-lock ; some neat operators combine these different 

 modes so well, that the hair is rendered thin and short without 

 presenting any very visible marks of the alteration. By means 

 of an iron comb with small teeth and a pair of good scissors, 

 the hair may be shortened without setting it on end or leaving 

 scissor marks, but every groom can not do this. 



There has been considerable difference of opinion as to the 

 propriety of trimming the heels. Some contend that the long 

 hair soaks up the moisture, keeps the skin long wet and cold, 

 producing grease, sores, cracks, and scurfmess ; by others 

 this is denied ; they affirm that the long hair, far from favor- 

 ing the production of these evils, has a tendency to prevent 

 them. But there is another circumstance to be taken into 

 consideration, and that accounts sufficiently for the difference 

 of opinion. 



When the horse is carefully tended after his work is over, 

 his legs quickly and completely dried, the less hair he has 



* The word heel is applied to the back and hollow of the pastern. In this 

 place, all that is said of the heels is applicable to the legs. 



10* 



