To keep the skin in good order, the horse must be dressed once every day, besides the cleaning, which is made after work. This dressing is usually performed in the morning, or in the forenoon. It varies in character according to the state of the skin and the value of the horse. The operation is performed by means of the brush, the currycomb, and the wisp, which is a kind of duster, made of straw, hay, matting, or horse-hair.

The Brush, composed of bristles, and varying in size to suit the strength of the operator, removes all the dust and furfura-ceous matter lodged at the roots of the hair, and adhering to its surface. It also polishes the hair, and when properly applied, the friction probably exerts a beneficial influence upon the skin, conducive to health, and to the horse's personal appearance.

The Currycomb is composed of five or six iron combs, each having short small teeth; these are fixed on an iron back, to which a handle is attached. There is also one blade, sometimes two, without teeth, to prevent the combs from sinking too deep. The currycomb serves to raise and to separate the hairs that are matted together by perspiration and dust, and to remove the loose mud. Like the brush, it may also stimulate the skin, and have some effect upon the secretions of this organ; but, except among thick, torpid-skinned, long-haired horses, it is too harsh for this purpose. In grooming thoroughbred, or fine-skinned horses, its principal use is to clean the dust from the brush, which is done by drawing the one smartly across the other.

The Wisp is a kind of duster. It removes the light dust and the loose hairs not taken away by the brush; it polishes the hair and makes the coat lie smooth and regular. The brush penetrates between the hairs and reaches the skin, but the wisp acts altogether on the surface, cleaning and polishing only those hairs, and those portions of hairs, which are not covered by others. Applied with some force, the wisp beats away loose dust lodged about the roots. It is often employed to raise the temperature of the skin, and to dry the hair when the horse is cold and wet. In many stables the currycomb and the wisp form the principal, or the only instruments of purification.

Valuable horses are usually dressed in the stable. The groom tosses the litter to the head of the stall, puts up the gangway bales, turns round the horse, to have his head to the light, removes the breast-piece, and hood, when a hood is worn : he takes away the surcingle and folds back the quarter-piece, but does not remove it entirely. It keeps the dust off the horse. With the brush in his left hand, and the currycomb in his right, he commences on the left side of the horse, and finishes the head, neck, and forequarter; then his hands change tools, and he performs the like service on the right side. The head requires a deal of patience to clean it properly; the hairs run in so many different directions, and there are so many depressions and elevations, and the horse is often so unwilling to have it dressed, that it is generally much neglected by bad grooms. The dust about the roots, upon the inside and the outside of the ears, is removed by a few strokes of the brush, but the hair is polished by repeatedly and rapidly drawing the hands over the whole ear. The process is well enough expressed by the word stripping. Having finished the fore part of the horse, the groom returns his head to the manger, and prepares to dress the body and the hind quarters.

A little straw is thrown under the hind feet to keep them off* the stones; the clothes are drawn off, and the horse's head secured. The clothes are taken to the door, shook, and in dry weather exposed to the air, till the horse is dressed. After the brushing is over, every part of the skin having been entirely deprived of dust, and the hair polished till it glistens like satin, the groom passes over the whole with a wisp, with which, or with a linen rubber, dry or slightly damped, he concludes the most laborious portion of the dressing. The clothes are brought in, and replaced upon the horse. His mane, foretop, and tail, are combed, brushed, and, if not hanging equally, damped. The eyes, nostrils, muzzle, anus, and sheath, are wiped with a damp sponge; the feet are picked out, and perhaps washed. If the legs be white and soiled with urine, they require washing with warm water and soap, after which they are rubbed till dry. When not washed, the legs are polished partly by the brush and the wisp, but chiefly by the hands.

The bed and the stable being arranged, the horse is done up for the morning.

It is not an easy matter to dress a horse in the best style. It is a laborious operation, requiring a good deal of time, and with many horses much patience and dexterity. Ignorant and lazy grooms never perform it well. They confine themselves to the surface. They do more with the wisp than with the brush. The horse when thus dressed may not look so far amiss, but upon rubbing the fingers into his skin they receive a white greasy stain, never communicated when the horse has been thoroughly dressed.

All horses, however, can not be groomed in this manner. From strappers, carters, farm-servants, and many grooms, it must not be expected. Such a dressing is not of great service, at least it is not essential to the horses they look after, nor it is practicable if it were. The men have not time to bestow it.

The horse may be dressed in the stable or in the open air. When weather permits, that is, when dry and not too cold, it is better for both the horse and his groom that the operation be performed out of doors. When several dirty horses are dressed in the stable at the same time, the air is quickly loaded with impurities. Upon looking into the nostrils of the horse, they are found quite black, covered with a thick layer of dust. This is bad for the lungs of both the horse and the man. I suppose it is with the intention of blowing it away, that stablemen are in the habit of making a hissing noise with the mouth The dust, besides entering, and probably irritating the nostrils, falls upon the clean horses, the harness, and everything else. Racers and other valuable horses are almost invariable dressed in the stable, and there they are safest. They have little mud about them [and from frequent grooming and constantly being clothed, little dandruff in, or dust on their hair] to soil the stable.

Inferior stablemen sometimes dress a horse very wretchedly. That which they do is not well done, and it is not done in the right way. They are apt to be too harsh with the currycomb. Some thin-skinned horses can not bear it, and they do not always require it. It should be applied only when and where necessary. This instrument loosens the mud, raises and separates the hair; and when the hair is long, the comb cuts much of it away, especially when used with considerable force. It is not at all times proper to thin a horse's coat suddenly, and, when improper, it should be forbidden. Having raised and separated the hair, the comb should be laid aside. To use it afterward is to thin the coat; and in general, if the coat be too long, it should be thinned by degrees, not at two or three, but at ten or twelve thinnings. Then, the currycomb has little to do about the head, legs, flanks, or other parts that are bony, tender, or thinly covered with hair. When used in these places it should be drawn in the direction of the hairs, or obliquely across them, and lightly applied. The comb is often too sharp. For some horses it should always be blunt. The horse soon shows whether or not it is painful to him.

If the operation be absolutely necessary, and can not be performed without pain, the pain must be suffered. But it is only in the hand of a rude or unskilful groom that the comb gives any pain. Some never think of what the horse is suffering under their operations. They use the comb as if they wanted to scrape off the skin. They do not apparently know the use of the instrument. Without any regard to the horse's struggles, they persist in scratching and rubbing, and rubbing and scratching, when there is not the slightest occasion for employing the comb. On a tender skin, the comb requires very little pressure; it should be drawn with the hair, or across it, rather than against it, and there should be no rubbing. The pain is greatest when the comb is made to pass rapidly backward and forward several times over the same place. It should describe a sweeping, not a rubbing motion.

For some tender horses even the brush is too hard. In the flank, the groin, on the inside of the thigh, there can be little dust to remove which a soft wisp will not take away, and it is needless to persist in brushing these and similar places when the horse offers much resistance. In using it about the head or legs, care must be taken not to strike the horse with the back of the brush. These bony parts are easily hurt, and after repeated blows the horse becomes suspicious and troublesome. For thin-skinned irritable horses the brush should be soft, or somewhat worn.

Where the currycomb is used too much, the brush is used too little. The expertness of a groom may be known by the manner in which he applies the brush. An experienced operator will do as much with a wisp of straw as a half-made groom will do with the brush. He merely cleans, or at the very most polishes the surface, and nothing but the surface. The brush should penetrate the hair and clean the skin, and to do this it must be applied with some vigor, and pass repeatedly over the same place. It is oftenest drawn along the hair, but sometimes across and against it. To sink deeply, it must fall flatly and with some force, and be drawn with considerable pressure.

When the horse is changing his coat, both the brush and the currycomb should be used as little and lightly as possible. A damp whisp will keep him tolerably decent till the new coat be fairly on, and it will not remove the old one too fast.

The ears and the legs are the parts most neglected by untrained grooms. They should be often inspected, and his attention directed to them. White legs need to be often washed with soap and water [and hand-rubbed], and all legs that have little hair about them require a good deal of hand-rubbing. White horses are the most difficult to keep, and in the hands of a bad groom they are always yellow about the hips and hocks. The dung and urine are allowed so often to dry on the hair that at last it is dyed, and the other parts are permitted to assume a dingy smoky hue, like unbleached linen.