There are two ways of removing the mud. One may be termed the dry, and another the wet mode. The first is performed by means of the scraper and the currycomb, or a kind of brush made of whalebone, which answers much better than the currycomb. In most of the well-regulated coaching-stables, the strappers are never allowed to apply water to a horse that has come muddy off the road [and in no stable should the mud be allowed to be re moved from the horse by washing, except he be hand-rubbed dry]. The usual practice is to strip off the mud and loose water by the sweat knife; to walk the horse about for ten minutes if he be warm or wet and the weather fair, otherwise he stands a little in his stall or in an open shed; then the man begins with the driest of those that have come in together. Much of the surface mud which the scraper has left about the legs is removed by a straw wisp, or a small birch broom, or the whalebone brush; the wisp likewise helps to dry the horse. The whalebone brush is a very useful article when the coat is long. That, and the currycomb, with the aid of a wisp, are almost the only implements coaching-strappers require in the winter season. It clears away the mud and separates the hairs, but it does not polish them.

A gloss such as the coat of these horses requires, is given by the wisp. The whalebone brush is sometimes too coarse, and many horses can not bear it at any time, while others can suffer it only in winter. After the mud has been removed with this brush, the matted hair parted by the currycomb, and the horse dusted all over with the wisp, his feet are washed, the soles picked, the shoes examined, the legs and heels well rubbed, partly by the hand and partly by the wisp, and the mane and tail combed. In the best of these stables he is well dressed with the bristle brush before he goes to work. In other stables the usual mode of removing the mud is by: