I should certainly prefer seeing a horse of mine with a fine short coat without the aid of clipping; but if that were not to be accomplished, I would certainly have him clipped.
“A very dangerous effect of debility, or being out of condition,” says Mr. Smith, p. 18, “is, that the subject has a long rough coat, which retains the perspiration excited by exercise; and even in cold weather, when the exercise is not such as to excite sweat, the insensible perspiration which is constantly issuing from the extremities of the cutaneous vessels is condensed among the hair, and appears on the surface like dew; whereby cold is produced on the surface of the body, occasioning too great a determination of blood to the lungs, and other important viscus, which is always in proportion to the diminution of the cutaneous perspiration.”
“I must own myself a very decided advocate for the clipping of hunters, having observed such horses to have had a most decided advantage, during the last season, with the Cheshire, Sir Richard Puleston’s and Sir Thomas Stanley’s fox-hounds, as well as with the Chester harriers, now under the very superior management of Captain Puleston. Experience and observation are, in this matter, worth a bushel of à priori reasoning; but scientific argument and rational explanation are not wanting to aid and enforce the practice of clipping. In the first place and to begin with the most trifling reason—the horse is a pound lighter; and the coat affording little resistance to the brush, your groom is not half so soon fatigued in dressing, and lays double strength upon the surface. This causes a greater determination to the extreme vessels, and the insensible perspiration is proportionably increased. We invariably find a connexion between the action of the skin and that of the intestines; and this is sufficiently evident in a well-groomed horse; the lacteals of the bowels seem to have a corresponding action communicated to them—they absorb and select the pabulum of the blood with increased vigour—the secreting vessels of the stomach furnish the gastric solvent more abundantly—the liver more readily acts, and separates those vitiated parts which have fulfilled their duties in the circulation, and require to be thrown out of the system, but in their transit, in the form of bile, perform other important uses, in stimulating the intestines to that regular peristaltic motion which secures a change of particles to the vessels which absorb the nourishment for the blood. But the abdominal viscera do not alone benefit by the more intimate friction which is admitted to the skin of a clipped horse. The lungs are wonderfully assisted the more the insensible perspiration is increased: the less work for them to accomplish, the less will be the determination to the internal vessels; and consequently the less risk of congestion in the minute bronchial ramifications of the lungs.”
Were I to give a good price for a promising young horse for the purpose of making him a hunter, and keeping him for my own use, and a man were to come into my stable and tell me he would give me one-third of his value if I would have him clipped, I would refuse his offer. I look upon clipping as nothing but a bad substitute for good grooming, and an operation attended with several disadvantages. In the first place, when once performed it must always be repeated; and in the second, it is a constant eye-sore to a person who is fond of seeing his horses looking well, as it effectually destroys that bloom on the skin which is not only so beautiful, but also so confirmatory of the sound health of the animal; and lastly, by depriving him of the protection which a short thick coat, lying close to the body, affords him against the scratching of thorns and briars, it very frequently causes a horse to refuse rough places in a fence which he would not have refused before. It is a remedy to be sure, or at least a palliative; but I had rather a horse of mine should endure the disease it is intended to relieve, until I could bring a better medicine to his aid; and were I to become possessed of a hunter which required clipping, I would put up with his long coat and evening sweats, until, by strengthening his general system, I got rid of the latter, to which the former is by no means a certain contributor. It is quite possible—and I have an instance at this moment in my own stable—for a horse to have a long coat (and some horses at certain periods will not wear a short coat), but still to look very blooming to the eye, and dry immediately after a sweat, as is the case with the horse I speak of. I am not weak enough to suppose that clipping will not continue to be practised because one individual disapproves of it; but I may be allowed to say, I will never after this year practise it again. The horse I had clipped last winter must now, I fear, be clipped again, for I abhor the sight of him in his present state—his coat somewhat resembling a poodle dog; but his evening sweats are got rid of by the method I pursued with him in the summer. Clipping may be all very well for those who cannot, or will not, get their horses into condition by other means; and to such only do I recommend it.—Nimrod—Smith—Equestris.
Close, s. A small field enclosed; the period when it is illegal to shoot or fish; the time of shutting up; a grapple in wrestling.
Clothe, v. To invest with garments, to cover with dress.
Clove, s. A valuable spice brought from Ternate; the fruit or seed of a very large tree; some of the parts into which garlick separates.