The Work Horse 263 



five miles at a walk will put most horses in a condition for 

 good work, provided they are walked from the start, but 

 if they are started off at a fast gait, and begin to scour, 

 the walk will not stop the trouble. Late in the summer 

 and in the fall, the driving horse may run in the pasture 

 and stubble fields and be in fairly good working condition 

 with no great tendency to scour. It is possible to keep 

 the horses in the barn all the time, and by skillful manage- 

 ment, plenty of grooming, and daily work put them in con- 

 dition to look better and do more driving than the horse 

 that has been in pasture. The conditions mentioned, 

 however, are impracticable on the farm, except in rare 

 cases. 



GROOMING 



Horses that are running in the pasture do not require 

 grooming, but do well without it, and horse-men fre- 

 quently wonder why it is necessary to groom horses in 

 the stables. It is not the stabling that makes it necessary 

 to groom a horse, but it is the high feeding, and active 

 work. This is proved by the cavalry horses, which require 

 grooming, even when living in the camp, just as much as 

 horses which are kept in stables. Fast or active work 

 increases the secretion of the glands of the skin, and the 

 greater the action of the skin, the greater the attention 

 that must be paid to it. The horse which is not at heavy 

 or fast work does not require much grooming, because 

 the excretions of the system are carried off mainly by 

 the bowels and kidneys ; but during hard work much of the 

 excretions must be carried off through the pores of the 

 skin. Grooming is not a mere matter of external cleanli- 

 ness, but of the perfect condition of the skin and blood. 



The skin is composed of two layers ; namely, the outer or 



