This name may be given to the operation of washing the horse all over. Where possible, and not forbidden by the owner, a lazy or ignorant groom always performs it in the neighboring river or pond. Some take the horse into the water till it is up to his belly, and others swim him into the depths, from which man and horse are often borne away with the stream, to the great grief of the newspaper editor, who deplores their melancholy fate; by which, 1 suppose, he means melancholy ignorance.

These river bathings ought to be entirely prohibited. In this town boys are often sent to the Clyde with horses, and they play themselves in the water, wading here and there, and up and down, till the horse is benumbed and carried off, or hardly able to reach the shore. Besides this risk, he is cooled both without and within, for he is generally permitted to drink at the same time. The running water removes the mud very effectually; but that can be done quite as well, and with less danger to the horse, though with a little more trouble to the keeper, in the stable-yard. There are only certain times in which bathing is proper, and these times are never observed when the men have got into the habit of going to the river.

In cold weather it is an act of madness. During some of the hottest days in summer, a general bathing is wonderfully refreshing to a horse that has run a stage at the rate of ten miles an hour. It cleans the skin more effectually than any other means, and with less irritation to the horse; it renders him comfortably cool, and, under certain conditions, it does him no harm. Those employed in public conveyances are almost the only horses that require it. During very hot weather they suffer much from the pace at which they travel. They come off the road steeped in perspiration, but in a few minutes they are dry. The coat is thin and short, and the hairs glued together by dirt and sweat; to raise and separate them with the currycomb is productive of much pain, greatly aggravated by the fevered condition of the horse. The best way of cleaning a horse in this state, is by washing him. The operation is performed by the water-brush and the sponge. The horse should stand in the sun. The man, taking a large coarse sponge in his hand, usually commences at the neck, close to the head; he proceeds backward and downward till he has bathed the horse all over. This may be done in two minutes.

Then, dipping his brush in the water, he applies it as generally as the sponge, drawing it always in the direction of the hair, without any rubbing. The sponge merely applies the water; the brush loosens and removes the dust and perspiration which adhere to the hair. The sweat-knife is next employed, and the horse being scraped as dry as possible, he is walked about in the sun for half an hour, more or less, till he be perfectly dry. During the time he is in motion the scraper is reapplied several times, especially to the belly, and the horse gets water at twice or thrice. When quite dry he is stabled, and wisped over, perhaps lightly brushed, to lay and polish his coat, and when his legs are well rubbed he is ready for feeding.

To the hackney and the stage-coach horse, a bathing of this kind may often be given with great benefit. It improves the appearance of the skin, and subdues that fevered state of the system in which horses often remain for a long time after severe exertion under a burning sun. It must not be overdone. The horse should be washed and dried as quickly as possible. The object is to render him comfortably cool, not to freeze him. Upon cold, wet, or cloudy days, it is forbidden, and after sunset it is out of the question. For slow working horses it is neither necessary nor proper. The excitement of their work is so moderate, that the circulation becomes tranquil soon after the work is over. They are not so difficult to clean, and they are not liable to the faint, fevered condition which fast work produces in hot weather. The men who attend these slow horses are seldom able to bathe them, even though bathing were beneficial. They have not sufficient despatch.

Operations Of Decoration

Some of these might very well be termed expurgatory or deformatory operations. Many of them consist in removing something supposed to be superfluous or noxious, or something offensive to taste, which among stablemen is often sufficiently corrupt. To judge of their propriety or impropriety, it is necessary to advert briefly to.