STABLE OPERATIONS. 71 



SECOND CHAPTER. 



STABLE OPERATIONS. 



I. STABLEMEN. II. GROOMING. III. OPERATIONS OF DECORA- 

 TION. IV. MANAGEMENT OF THE FEET. V. OPERATIOxVS 



ON THE STABLE. 



To many people the stable operations may appear to be 

 few and simple, requiring little dexterity and almost no ex- 

 perience. A great many horses do not demand much care ; 

 their work is easy, and their personal appearance is not a 

 matter of much consequence. They are horses of small price, 

 and they are attended by men whose services would not be 

 accepted where the value, and work, and appearance of the 

 horse, demand more skilful management. In hunting and in 

 racing studs, the stable operations are more numerous, and 

 performed in a difTerent manner. There, nobody can groom 

 a horse but a groom ; one who has learned his business as a 

 man learns a trade. 



It is impossible to have the stable operations performed 

 well, nor even decently, without good tools, and good hands 

 to use them. There should be no want of the necessary im- 

 plements. A bad groom may do without many of them, be- 

 cause he does not know their use ; but a good groom requires 

 br-ushes, combs, sponges, towels, skins, rublDers, scissors, 

 bandages, cloths, pails, forks, brooms, and some other little 

 articles, all which he should have, if the horse is to receive 

 all the care and decoration a groom can bestow. 



The stable operations are learned by imitation and by prac- 

 tice. But there is no one to teach, and no one desirous of 

 learning them in a systematic manner. A boy, intending to be- 

 come a groom, goes into the stable of a person not very par- 

 ticular about his horses, or he goes sometimes under a senior. 

 At first the boy can do almost nothing. After a while he is 

 able to do some things, perhaps, tolerably well. He can go 



