It is evident that the more the skin is stimulated by exercise and grooming, the more liable will the animal be to suffer from chill in the stable. Hence, racehorses, especially when they are "wound up to concert pitch," as a rule require more clothing than other horses. The objection to the use of clothing on account of its tendency to produce increased susceptibility to chill outside, does not apply as forcibly in their case as in that of ordinary working horses; for during training they are kept constantly on the move when in the open, and besides, they generally wear clothing, though of light material. Even when they are stripped for racing, they are seldom kept motionless, even at the starting post. The case, however, is very different with horses which have to do their work in the open without clothing, and which have often to remain standing for a considerable time in a state of nakedness, exposed to a keen wind, as for instance, at the cover side or in a lady's victoria out shopping. With such horses, we should evidently reduce the quantity of clothing to the minimum required to make up for the loss of warmth caused by enforced idleness in the stable, and by the reduction in the length and thickness of the coat by grooming and clipping.

In estimating the quantity of clothing that would compensate for the loss of warmth caused by the removal of the coat by clipping, I do not think, except in the case of racehorses, that it would exceed that of a thick woollen rug or quarter sheet, especially when the legs are not clipped. Even when taking during winter well-bred hunters which were clipped and in hunting condition to St. Petersburg, via Revel, on the deck of a steamer through the North Sea and Baltic, on which occasion the cold was far greater than is ever felt in England, I found a rug and a quarter sheet amply sufficient for purposes of warmth.