20G FARRIERY, ETC. 



hail, near or close to the roots ; — another way is, to swilcli 



the heels, — ^that is, to shorten the hair without leaving any 

 mark of the scissors ; the groom seizes the hair and cutM 

 off a certain portion in the same manner that he shortens 

 a switch tail ; — the third mode is, to pull the long hairs out 

 by the roots. Switching and pulling, which is little prac- 

 tised, are generally confined to the foot-lock ; some neat 

 operators combine these different modes so well, that the 

 hair is rendered thin and short without presenting any 

 very visible marks of the alteration. By means of an iron 

 comb with small teeth and a pair of good scissors, the hair 

 may be shortened without setting it on end or leaving scis- 

 sor marks, but every groom can not do this. 



When the horse is carefully tended after his work is 

 over, his legs quickly and completely dried, the less hair 

 he has about them the better. The moisture which that 

 little takes up can be easily removed: both the skin and 

 the hair can be made perfectly dry before evaporation 

 begins, or proceeds so far as to deprive the legs of their 

 heat. It is the cold produced by evaporation that does all 

 the mischief. 



Whenever the legs miLst be dried by manual labor, they 

 should have little hair about them. But in coaching and 

 posting-studs, and among cart-horses, the men can not, or 

 will not, bestow this care upon the legs ; they have not 

 time, and they would not do it if they had time. A team 

 of four horses, perhaps, comes in at once, the legs all wet, 

 and, it may be, the whole skin drenched in rain. Before 

 eight of the legs can be rubbed dry, the other eight have 

 become almost dry of themselves, and are nearly as cold 

 as thej can be. These horses should ever have the heela 

 trimmed: they cannot have too much hair about them. 

 They do indeed soak up a great deal of water, and remain 

 irot fr*'* « inu2h lonsrer time than those that are nearly 



