Year: 1862




Horse Coverings and Their Use.


Some good horsemen blanket their
horses all the year, while others dis
card their use. The advocates Of the
former practice claim that blanketing
imparts sleek and glossy appearance
to the coat, effects a saving of food by
keeping up the animal heat, protects
them from flies and dust, making the
grooming easier, and preventing a
sudden check of prespiration, which
would result in colds or other diseases.
Assuming that nature gives the horse
sufficient protection, and that what
ever increase the labor of tending him
without an equivalent gain is to be
avoided, too much is claimed. His
coat receives an additional gloss from
the blanketing, but horse in good
health, well fed and faithfully groomed
wears coat that needs no polishing.
All the food sayedby blankets, think,
can be better estimated upon paper
than seen in the measure. Werethere
material gain, it would be economy to
blanket our COWS and oxen.


Constantly wearing the blanket
tends to make a horse sensitive, and
liable to take colds. When horse
brought from farm stable, is stripped
of his thick blanket, he undergoes a
sudden and great change of tempera-
ture. Such treatment seems harsh, if
not cruel, at any rate quite the reverse
to the course men pursue. When we
20 out in cold weather, we are very
careful to put on extra garments, and
then lay them aside while in the house.
What would be said of the man who
advocated wearing oyercoates in the
house, and then go in shirt sleeves
while out of doors. Precisely similar
is the practice of always keeping
blanket on a horse in the stall.


As with men, so with horses, the
same regimen is not applicable in the
same degree to all classes. For those
horses which are used only for fast
driving, the constant use of the blan,
ket may be advisable and praetieable,
for they stand in the stable Che greater
part Of the day, and when taken out,
they are either heagilY bianketed, Or
their exercise is severe. 1t is by the
owners Of this class of horses that the
| practice is most strangely reeommen-
ded. But for horses of all work, out
every day in all kinds Of weather,
warm stalls with plenty of bedding in
warm barn are sufficient. Wide
cracks between boards near the stalls
are not approved means of ventilation
in a New England climate. A barn
may be warm and tight, and at the
same well ventilated. The stalls
should be upon the warm side of the
barn, with high and tight sides, afford
ing double protection. Influenced by
such views, some extensive owners
and excellent managers of horses in
this vicinity have made their stables
warmer, thus dispensing with the con
stant use of blankets in door.


1t is in their occasional use for pre-,
venting chills and colds, that their real
benefit is found. Some sort of cover
ing is indispensable for the health and
comfort of the horse, when he is made
to stand exposed to cold winds; and
when he returns to the stable tired
and heated, the blanket should be
worn until he has cooled off; then re-
move it, and give him thorough rub
bing down. 1t is important that the
blankets should be of ample dimen-
siOns, for while exposed to cold, in a
heated condition. the muscles of the
breats and legs need protection as well
as the back and sides; for this pur.
pose blankets should be wide and long
enough to pass round and fasten
under the breast. A light and thin
covering in fly time saves the horse
much torment, and frequently saves
the master serious runaways and ae-
eidents. The india-rubber coverings
now becoming so common with ex
pressmen and others, who are obliged
to be out in all kinds of weather, car
not be too highly commended. The
judicious use of blankets and other
coverings in the ways stated, amply
. repays all expense and trouble. They
prolong the days Of many hard
worked horse, and save him mucE
i, suffering from stifened legs and rheu
matte muscles. N. S. 7.