82 STABLE ECONOMY. 



bit. A bad driver is also apt to overwork an unseasoned or 

 a hot horse, especially when driving more than one. He 

 often allows a free-working horse to do more than his share 

 Drunkenness, through dangerous in every situation, is to 

 be avoided more in the driver than in the stableman. Most 

 frequently he loses all skill in driving, and is liable to all the 

 accidents arising from the want of it. Very often he retains 

 his senses sufliciently to manage the horses, and yet does 

 them a great deal of mischief, though he may not run into a 

 ditch, nor upset the vehicle. The racing madness falls upon 

 him ; he challenges all who travel in the same direction, and 

 he must beat all ; or, if there be no one with whom he can 

 contend, he will run against time. Hence the horses are 

 lamed or overworked, or injured in various other ways 



GROOMING. 



In general, the word grooming is confined to those opera- 

 tions which have cleanliness for their object. To made the 

 horse clean, and to keep him clean, form a part, and in many 

 stables the whole of grooming ; but the health of the horse is 

 involved, and some care must be taken to preserve that. He 

 comes to the stable, wet with rain, or heated by exertion, as 

 well as soiled by the road mud. While he is cleaned, he 

 must also be cooled and dried. The operations which pro- 

 duce a clean skin, and those which tend to prevent the con- 

 sequences of exertion and of exposure, are so closely con- 

 nected that they must be considered together. It is not my 

 intention to describe any of them very minutely ; grooming is 

 easily learned by imitation ; and oral are better than w^ritten 

 instructions. 



The duties of the groom considered in relation to time 

 usually connnence at half-past five or six in the morning. 

 Sometimes he must be in the stable much earlier, and some- 

 times he need not be there before seven. It depends upon 

 the time the stable is shut up at night, the work there is to 

 do in the morning, and the hour at which the horse is wanted. 

 When the horse is going out early and to fast work, the man 

 should be in the stable an hour before the horse goes to 

 the road. In general he arrives about six o'clock, gives 

 the horse a little water, and then his morning feed of grain. 

 While the horse is eating his breakfast, the man shakes up 

 the litter, sweeps out the stable, and prepares to dress the 

 horse, or take him to exercise. In summer, the morning eX' 



