112 STABLE ECONOMY. 



either rider or driver. The hair on the inside should not be 

 cut from any horse. It is easily cleaned by a gentle applica- 

 tion of the brush. When the hair grows too long, the points 

 may be taken off. This is done by closing the ear, and cut- 

 ting away the hair that protrudes beyond the edges. Among 

 heavy horses even this is unnecessary. 



Cropping the Ears used at one time to be almost as com- 

 mon as docking is now. But the operation is so entirely 

 abandoned, that no one now speaks of it. 



Trimming the Muzzle and Face. — All round the muzzle, 

 and especially about the nostrils and lips, there are long fine 

 hairs, scattered wide apart, and standing perpendicular to the 

 skin. These are feelers. They perform the same functions 

 as the whiskers of the cat. Their roots are endowed with 

 peculiar sensibility. They warn the horse of the vicinity of 

 objects to which he must attend. There are several grouped 

 together below and above the eyes, which give these delicate 

 organs notice of approaching insects or matters that might 

 enter them and do mischief. The slightest touch on the ex- 

 tremity of these hairs is instantly felt by the horse. They 

 detect even the agitation of the air. 



It is usual with grooms to cut all these hairs away as vulgar 

 excrescences. They can give no reason for doing so. They 

 see these hairs on all horses that are not well groomed, and 

 perhaps they are accustomed to associate them with general 

 want of grooming. They are so fine and so few in number, 

 that they can not be seen from a little distance, and surely 

 they can not be regarded as incompatible with beauty, even 

 though they were more conspicuous. 



The operation ought to be forbidden ; few horses suffer it 

 without some resistance, and many have to be restrained by 

 the twitch. The pain is not great, but it seems to be suf- 

 ficiently annoying. 



The long hair which grows upon the throat channel and 

 neck of horses that have been much exposed to cold, is partly 

 pulled out and partly shortened. It has been supposed that 

 the removal of the hair from about the throat renders the horse 

 very liable to catch cold after it, and to have a cough. It is 

 sometimes shortened by clipping, but oftener by singeing it, 

 and singeing is blamed more than clipping. The operation 

 certainly does not improve the appearance of heavy draught- 

 horses ; it is never required by blood horses, or others that 

 are well groomed and comfortably stabled ; and saddle, gig, or 

 post-horses, to whom the operation might be an improvement, 



