DAILY ROUTINE IN TRAINING 167 



on. The breastpiece is next removed; the base of the 

 neck and chest scraped and dried ; and, lastly, the body 

 clothing is taken off, and the barrel, loins, and quarters 

 finished. Dry, light clothing is put on, and he should 

 get half a bucket of water, say, about a gallon. This 

 rubbing down should not take more than five or six 

 minutes, and after it the animal should be started home 

 at a walk without further delay. 



Though the horse, on leaving his stable, should be 

 ridden at a walk before his work commences, he had 

 better be led home ; for then he will return cooler, and 

 will not be so liable to break out into a sweat again, as 

 he would be were he ridden back. If the horse is to be 

 ridden on his way home, the felt saddle-cloth, if it has 

 been used, should be put on inside out, so that the portion 

 of it which has become wet from sweat, may not come in 

 contact with the skin of the animal's back ; for, if it did 

 so, it would act, more or less, as a poultice, and render 

 the part soft and tender. Besides this, a dry surface next 

 the skin is more comfortaWe than a damp one. 



Having arrived at the stable, he may get as much 

 water as he chooses to drink, with or without suttoo mixed 

 through it, as the trainer sees fit ; and then he is tied up, 

 his clothing removed, and the grooming begun. 



The practice of rubbing a horse down immediately 

 after his gallop is specially applicable to an animal which 

 has been worked in clothing, and which, in consequence 

 of the presence of the damp material next its skin, would, 

 were it not removed, be liable to become enervated and 

 chilled during the walk home. When, on the contrary, 

 a horse is worked without clothing, which, as a rule, is 



