This operation varies according to many circumstances; it is influenced by the kind of horse, the state and time in which he arrives at the stable. Slow-working horses merely require to be dried and cleaned; those of fast work may require something more, and those which arrive at a late hour are not usually dressed as they would be by coming home earlier. The principal objects in dressing a horse after work are to get him dry, cool, and clean. It is only, however, in stables tolerably well regulated, that these three objects are aimed at, or attainable. Carters, and other inferior stablemen, endeavor to remove the mud which adheres to the belly, the feet, and the legs, and they are not often very particular as to the manner in which this is done. If a pond or river be at hand, or on the road home, the horse is driven through it, and his keeper considers that the best, which I suppose means the easiest, way of cleaning him. Others, having no such convenience, are content to throw two or three buckets of water over the legs. Their only way of drying the horse is by sponging the legs, and wisping the body, and this is generally done as if it were a matter of form more than of utility. There are some lazy fellows who give themselves no concern about dressing the horse.

They put him in the stable wet and dirty as he comes off the road; and after he is dry, perhaps he gets a scratch with the currycomb, and a rub with the straw-wisp. Fast-working horses require very different treatment. The rate at which they travel renders them particularly liable to all those diseases arising from, or connected with changes of temperature. In winter, the horse comes off the road, heated, wet, and bespattered with mud; in summer, he is hotter, drenched in perspiration, or half dry, his coat matted, and sticking close to the skin. Sometimes he is quite cool, but wet, and clothed in mud. The treatment he receives can not be always the same. In summer, after easy work, his feet and legs may be washed and dried, and his body dressed in nearly the same manner that it is dressed before work. The wisp dries the places that are moist with perspiration, the currycomb removes the mud, and the brush polishes the hair, lays it, and takes away the dust. The dressing in such a case is simple and soon over, but it is all the horse requires.

When drenched in rain or perspiration, he must be dried by means of the scraper, he wisp, and evaporation; when heated, he must be walked about till cool, and sometimes he may be bathed, that he may be both cooled and cleaned.