OPERATIONS OF DECORATION 119 



most disagreeable and dangerous. It is true that clipping 

 saves the groom a great deal of labor. He can dry the horse 

 in half the time, and with less than half of the exertion 

 which a long coat requires ; but it makes his attention and 

 activity more necessary, for the horse is almost sure to catch 

 cold, if not dried immediately. When well clothed with hair, 

 he is in less danger, and not so much dependant upon the 

 care of his groom.* 



Objections to Clipping. — Some, as I have just observed, 

 dislike the look of a clipped horse. This is no objection to 

 the operation. As a matter of taste, it is needless to say any- 

 thing either for or against it. There are no arguments for 

 persuading men to admire that which offends the eye. The 

 clipped horse has a different color ; the hair is lighter ; a 

 black becomes a rusty brown ; the hair stares, stands on end, 

 and is never, or very seldom, glossy. But the only real ob- 

 jections to clipping are these : it costs two guineas, or there- 

 abouts; it renders the horse very liable to catch cold ; and it 

 exposes the skin so much, that he is apt to refuse a rough 

 fence in fear of thorns. There is not the slightest reason for 

 supposing — as has been supposed — that it produces blindness, 

 or has any tendency to shorten the duration of life. The 

 cost of the operation, and the additional care which the horse 

 requires, are, I believe, the principal objections ; and consid- 

 ering how little is gained, they will probably prevent the op- 

 eration from ever becoming very general. There are some 

 horses which wear a long rough coat all the year. The 

 groom, with all his care and the best of stables, can not keep 

 it within reasonable bounds. For these horses, if a long 

 coat is a great eye-sore, there is no remedy save clipping. 

 But there are very many horses clipped, to whom the opera- 

 tion would be quite unnecessary, were they better groomed 

 and well stabled. Since a fine coat is an object of so much 

 importance, it is well to know by what means it may be ob- 

 tained. When these are more generally known there will be 

 less clipping. 



To give the horse a jine coat all at once, is not possible un- 

 der any system of management. With horses that have been 

 previously exposed to the weather, it may be the work of six 

 months, and very often the horse must be two winters in the 

 stable before he becomes creditable to his sroom. Comforta- 

 ble stabling of itself exercises considerable influence upon 



* [For an excellent article on clipping horses in England, unsound feet, 

 &c, see American Agriculturist, vol. iii., page 78.] 



