296 THE HORSE 



is in perfect health and in good spirits. Every increase in the food and 

 work should be carefully watched, and its effects noted, so as to guide him 

 in deciding whether he can venture to take another step. It must be 

 remembered that hitherto the feeds of corn have been only three quar- 

 terns of oats dail}', and the exercise has not extended beyond a walk ; 

 but during the next few weeks the former must be doubled, or nearly so, 

 and the latter must go on into a daily slow trot of two or three miles on 

 turf, with an occasional steady gallop in place of this, and, as I have 

 before remarked, one or two sweats if the system is overloaded with fat. 

 But unless the hunter is very fleshy, nothing more than slow trots and 

 canters will be required until after the next dose of physic. The increase 

 in the quantity of corn will seldom tend to put on fat, and as the amount 

 of hay should be small, not exceeding 10 lbs. a day, unless the horse is 

 gross in his nature, he will have put on muscle, and lost some of the 

 internal fat which is so prejudicial to condition. 



The object of the sweating process is to remove superfluous fatty 

 matters, which act prejudicially in a twofold manner. In the first place 

 the fat itself is so much dead weight to carry, and on the calculation that 

 seven pounds are equal to a distance in an average length of race, it may 

 readily be understood that the huge quantity of adipose tissue, which is 

 carried by a fat horse, will, by its weight alone, retard any attempt at high 

 speed. But not only is fat to be objected to on this score ; for it is also 

 known by experience, that its pressure on the important internal organs, 

 when it is deposited around them, interferes with the proper perform- 

 ance of their several functions. The muscles of the limbs, when they are 

 marbled with fat, as we see them in the slaughtered ox and sheep, are 

 unable to contract vigorously, but when a similar condition occurs in 

 the muscular tissue of which the heart is composed, violent exertions are 

 interdicted, or, if they are attempted, they are attended with dangerous 

 and often fatal results. Again, it is ascertained that sweating has a local, 

 as well as a general effect, and that, by producing a copious discharge of 

 fluid from the skin covering any particular part, there will be a removal 

 of any superfluous fat which may be lodged beneath it, before the rest of 

 the body is perceptibly acted on. Hence, when the groom thinks that his 

 horse is loaded with fat about the heart, he puts on extra " sweaters " 

 over that part, or, on the contrary, if his object is to unload the ridge of 

 dense adipose membrane which constitutes a high crest, he puts on two 

 or three extra hoods, and sweats chiefly in that region of the body. The 

 local effect of these partial sweats is, perhaps, a good deal overrated, but 

 undoubtedly there is some foundation for the general belief. The use of 

 clothing for sweating is not nearly so frequent as it used to be, even in 

 racing stables, and horses are not now drawn so fine, by a great deal, as 

 they were formerly. At one time runners in the Derby, or in any other 

 great race, when they were saddled, looked like living skeletons, and to an 

 eye unaccustomed to the hard lines presented by their limbs, the beauty of 

 their forms Avas entirely gone. Now a different system prevails ; the 

 object is not to reduce the horse as much as he will bear, but to bring him 

 out as big as he can be, consistently with good wind. The celebrated 

 trainer, John Scott, has shown what can be done in this way, and his 

 example is now generally followed. So also with hunters, although they 



