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 greoming, 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 
