304 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
stables of rich men, where grooms are abundant; 
and such, I confess, was long my opinion. But when 
finally I tried the experiment with my own hands, I 
quickly discovered the mistake. The truth is, that a 
horse can be cleaned not only much better, but much 
quicker, without the currycomb, used upon hin, than 
with it; the reason being that the currycomb applied 
to his skin irritates it, and therefore produces more 
dandruff than it removes. ‘he true way to clean the 
horse is to rub him round and round with the brush; 
and to supplement this by smoothing down the hair 
with a cloth or a chamois skin, or both. Thus he 
can be made and kept perfectly clean. Even a mane 
brush is too severe for a very fine-coated animal. An 
Indian Sayce does his work almost entirely with the 
palms of his hands. A wet wisp of hay or straw 
is very effective in taking up dandruff; but the main 
reliance must be the currycomb brush. 
“If a horse is clean,” writes Major Fisher,’ “no 
scurf or grease of any kind should ever adhere to the 
hand when rubbed over the skin. If your groom 
assures you to the contrary, and says that you must 
expect a little, he lies, and knows it too.” 
It is related of Mr. Jefferson that he was accus- 
tomed at Monticello, his Virginia home, whenever a 
horse was brought round from the stables for his 
morning ride, to rub the animal’s coat with a cambric 
handkerchief, and if any grease or dirt appeared on 
it, the negro groom was reprimanded, and the horse 
sent back to the stables. 
1 Author of “Through Stable and Saddle-Room,” perhaps 
the most practical work on the subject of horse-keeping ever 
published. 
