PREPARATION FOR WORK 295 



to get them ready by the middle of November, but a well-summered horse 

 soiled in a loose-box with a proper allowance of corn, may be thoroughly 

 prepared by that time if he is set to work by the middle of August. This 

 will allow of two clear preparations, with an intervening week for cooling 

 physic. '^ Should the horse be up from grass, another month or six weeks at 

 least will be required, which must be employed in giving him nothing but 

 walking exercise, with a dose of physic at the beginning, and repeated at 

 the end of three weeks or a month. Horses at grass in the summer are 

 seldom allowed any corn, and the change from grass to the more stimu- 

 lating food of the stable must be made gradually, or some of the important 

 organs will assuredly fail. Hence the necessity for extra time, and 

 the addition which I have made to the calculated period for conditioning 

 a hunter summered in-doors, is barely sufficient for this purpose, when 

 he is full of grass or of the fattening food which is given to make him up 

 for the dealers. In either case great care and some experience are neces- 

 sary in altering the entire management of the animal, so as to give him 

 corn and exercise enough to prepare his frame gradually for the strains 

 which it will have to bear in the hunting-field, without producing inflam- 

 mation. With all the objections which I hold to physic, I must confess 

 that here I think it to be indispensable ; and invariably, as soon as a raw 

 horse is settled in the stable, I should get him thoroughly cleaned out 

 before I began to give him hay and corn. I have always found it advan- 

 tageous just to allow a couple of days to elapse before giving the physic, 

 which will serve to fill the large bowels with the new kind of food. A 

 mash should then be administered at night, and repeated if necessary till it 

 has had the desired eiFect in softening the dung, when the physic may be 

 given. Two or three days will elapse before it has set sufficiently to 

 allow of walking exercise ; but as soon as this can be ordered with safety, 

 the horse should be walked out twice a day for an hour and a half each 

 time, or two hours in the morning and one in the evening, whichever may 

 be preferred. The division of the exercise into two periods is far better 

 than keeping the green horse out for so long a time as three hours, which 

 will make him weary ; whereas, the shorter period will not tire any 

 horse, and a mid-day rest will restore his whole frame, and enable him to 

 go out again in the evening as cheerfully as ever*. I need scarcely observe 

 that the shoes should be attended to, and the feet put in proper order, for 

 three hours' walking exercise in ill-fitting shoes will do great harm, espe- 

 cially to feet that are not accustomed to their pressure. By persevering 

 with steady slow work, and feeding on a moderate allowance of hay and 

 corn, the latter not exceeding two feeds at first and three at the end of 

 the month, the horse will be ready by the middle of August to have a 

 second dose of physic, after which he may commence in earnest his first 

 real preparation. This also is chiefly confined to slow work, but if the 

 horse is gross he may have in the course of the four or five weeks to 

 which it extends one or two sweats of modei-ate length and speed. Great 

 caution must always be exercised by the groom at this time ; on no ac- 

 count should any fast work be given, unless he is satisfied that his horse 



^ This custom has to a great extent fallen into desuetude, but the editor after thirty- 

 years' practice among hunters is decidedly in favour of at least one dose of physic, which in 

 stable nomenclature always means a dose of aloes in the form of a ball. 



