STABLE OPERATIONS. 93 



Scraping. — The scraper is sometimes termed a sweat- 

 knife. In some stables it is just a piece of hoop iron, about 

 twenty inches lon^, by one and a half broad ; in the racing 

 and hunting-stables it is made of wood, sharp only on one 

 edge, and having the back thick and strong. When properly 

 handled, it is a very useful instrument. The groom taking 

 an extremity in each hand, passes over the neck, back, belly, 

 quarters, sides, every place where it can operate ; and with a 

 gentle and steady pressure, he removes the wet mud, the 

 rain, and the perspiration. Fresh horses do not understand 

 this, and are apt to resist it. A little more than the usual 

 care and gentleness at the first two or three dressings, render 

 them familiar with it. The pressure applied must vary at 

 different parts of the body, being lightest where the coal and 

 the skin are thinnest. The scraper must pass over the same 

 places several times, especially the belly, to which the water 

 gravitates from the back and sides. It has little or nothing to 

 do about the legs ; these parts are easily dried by a large 

 sponge, and are apt to be injured by the scraper. This op- 

 eration finished, the horse, if hot. must be walked about a lit- 

 tle, and if cool, he must be dried. 



Walking a Heated Horse. — Everybody knows that a horse 

 ought not to be stabled when perspiring very copiously after 

 severe exertion ; he nmst not stand still. It is known that 

 he is likely to catch cold, or to take intlamed lungs, or to 

 founder. By keeping him in gentle motion till cool, these 

 evils are prevented. This is all that stablemen can say about 

 it, and perhaps little more can be said with certainty. We 

 must go a little deeper than the skin, and consider the state 

 of the internal organs at the moment the horse has finished a 

 severe task. The action of the heart, the bloodvessels, the 

 nerves, and perhaps other parts, has been greatly increased, 

 to correspond with the extraordinary action of the muscles, 

 the instruments of motion. The circulation, once excited, 

 does not become tranquil the moment exertion ceases. The 

 heart and other internal organs which act in concert with the 

 heart, continue for a time to perform their functions with all 

 the energy which violent muscular ex«:;riion demands, and 

 they do mischief before they are aware that their extraordin- 

 ary services are no longer required. An irregularity in the 

 distribution of the blood takes place ; some part receives 

 more than it needs, and au intiammauon is the result. Mo- 

 tion prevents this, because it keeps; up a demand for blood 

 among the muscles. The transition from rapid motion to rest 



