102 STABLE ECONOMY. 



object of such a washing is not to clean the hair, but to clean 

 the skin, which is apt to become foul and to itch from the 

 mud adhering to it undisturbed. Upon drawing the hand over 

 the pasterns and the legs, when in this state, numerous pim- 

 ples are felt, some of which are raw. The horse is often 

 stamping violently, and rubbing one leg against another. A 

 solution of salt is a common and useful remedy against the 

 itchiness, but it will not prevent a return. 



I am aware that, in many coaching-stables, the men are 

 still permitted to wash the horse's legs, without being com- 

 pelled to dry them. This is no argument in favor of wash- 

 ing ; for unless the legs be well clothed with hair, they will 

 always tell the same tale. The horses that have recently 

 entered these studs have grease, swelled legs, and cracked 

 heels ; those that have been a longer time in the service may 

 be free from these, yet they show that they have had them 

 over and over again. Their legs are round and fleshy; the 

 skin thick, bald, seamed, callous. Nature has done much to 

 inure the skin, but not before the horse has given a great 

 deal of trouble, and perhaps not till he is permanently blem- 

 ished. 



Bat/ling. — This name may be given to the operation of 

 washing the horse all over. Where possible, and not forbid- 

 den by the owner, a lazy or ignorant groom always performs 

 it in the neighboring river or pond. Some take the horse in- 

 to the water till it is up to his belly, and others swim him in- 

 to the depths, from which man and horse are often borne 

 away with the stream, to the great grief of the newspaper 

 editor, who deplores their melancholy fate ; by which, 1 sup- 

 pose, he means melancholy ignorance. 



These river bathings ought to be entirely prohibited. In 

 this town boys are often sent to the Clyde with horses, and 

 they play themselves in the water, wading here and there, 

 and up and down, till the horse is benumbed and carried off, 

 or hardly able to reach the shore. Besides this risk, he is 

 cooled both without and within, for he is generally permitted 

 to drink at the same time. The running water removes the 

 mud very effectually ; but that can be done quite as well, and 

 with less danger to the horse, though vviih a little more 

 trouble to the keeper, in the stable-yard. There are oidy 

 certain times in which bathing is proper, and these times are 

 never observed when the men have got into the habit ol go- 

 ing to the river. 



In cold weather it is an act of madness. Durmg some of 



