Nature provides the horse with a fine and a comparatively short coat for summer wear; and a coarser and longer one for winter use. The animal sheds the former covering during the autumn; and the latter, during the spring. The hairs of the fore-lock, mane and tail, and the long hairs about the muzzle and eyes are not shed. Good grooming and the use of warm clothing greatly tend to reduce the difference between the summer coat and the winter coat. If, while the coat is being changed in the spring, the brush or other means be employed to hasten the process, the skin will become exposed to undue cold, with the result (p.18) that coarser hair will be formed than would have been the case had the winter coat been allowed to remain on for its usual period. Hence the summer coat will be rougher than it would otherwise have been, and its appearance may be more or less spoiled. Therefore to prevent any loss of good looks in the summer coat of their animals, grooms who have to study appearances, like those in charge of fashionable carriage horses in the London season, are generally careful to avoid brushing or hand-rubbing the coat, while it is being shed during the spring. The wisp and rubber, used in the direction of the grain of the coat, will then be sufficient for grooming purposes. With horses which are kept more for use than show, the season of the year should make no alteration in the grooming. Besides, as I have already indicated, the coats of horses which are well groomed all the year round, will vary but little in texture.

The colder the temperature of both the atmosphere and the stable, the greater difference will there be between the summer coat and the winter coat.