CLIPPING BATTERY HORSES. 
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other way. As regards conditioning horses in the winter, long slow 
work in marching order and plenty of oats is the way to get horses 
hard and fit for great exertion. 
After more than twenty years experience in the mounted branches I 
must say that I have never seen harness or appointments damaged by 
the horses coats being unclipped. And as regards galls and chafes 
surely the tendency to these is reduced not increased by leaving the 
hair on, in fact with this object in view, many people do not clip hunters 
under the saddle. 
The matter of skin diseases does not affect the question of clipping, 
as they are practically unknown in army horses at home. 
As regards the action of the skin, by clipping horses and standing 
them in the cold, you must certainly check it. 
If the advocates of clipping would only be honest, they would ac¬ 
knowledge that their real reasons for wishing for its adoption in the 
army, are that horses so shorn look smarter, that the harness does not 
get quite so dirty perhaps after a long day, and the men are saved a 
little time which they can then devote to polishing harness. 
Personally I shall be glad to see the day when all leather work is 
kept soft and serviceable with soap, and the metal work is either made 
of galvanized iron, brass, or aluminium. 
Batteries will then be able to go out four or five times a week with 
horsed guns for instruction and that melancholy intellect sapping in¬ 
stitution—exercising order—will be abolished throughout the service. 
