PREPARATION FOR WORK. 261 
stomach. Rock salt in the manger will sometimes have the desired effect, 
producing a degree of thirst which will make dry litter distasteful. 
KickINé AND BITING savagely are marks of actual vice, and scarcely 
come within the limits of the present section. Still the groom must 
know how to guard against them in the best way, so as to save himself 
from danger without unnecessarily punishing the horse. There are 
some animals which cannot be effectually restrained without severity, 
but on the average, kindness and firmness united will overcome any 
horse. Sometimes it is necessary to put on the muzzle while the dressing 
is going on, but this is chiefly because the skin is so irritable that the 
brush or whisp excite sensations which lead to the use of the teeth or 
hind legs to prevent their recurrence. In such cases as these Mr. Rarey’s 
method of subduing a savage horse is extremely valuable. 
PREPARATION FOR WORK. 
J HAVE ALREADY OBSERVED that these pages are not intended to serve 
as a guide for the trainer of the racehorse, and that they chiefly apply 
to the management of the hunter, hack, and carriage-horse belonging to 
the private gentleman. The description of the mode of preparation for 
work will therefore include the mode of fitting the hunter for his duties, 
and of getting the hack and carriage-horse into condition, from the state in 
which they are usually first brought into the stable, either from grass or 
the dealer’s hands. 
IN THE PRESENT DAY, THE HUNTER is prepared almost as carefully as 
the racchorse or steeplechaser, when he is intended for any of the grass 
countries. Nothing short of a regular preparation will enable a horse to 
go through a fast thing in Northamptonshire or Leicestershire, and no 
man in his senses would ride a horse there in the front rank, unless he 
was thoroughly fit. The stud-groom, therefore, requires for his purpose a 
training-ground where he can give his horses their sweats, without which 
it would be impossible to get them into condition. A very large space is 
not necessary, but a very small one will not suffice, the constant turning 
incidental to a limited gallop producing a great strain upon the joints. 
If possible a gallop measuring at least a mile and a half or two miles in 
circumference should be obtained, and with this length, including a mode- 
rate rise in its extent so as to open the horse’s pipes well at the finish of 
the sweat, it is the groom’s fault if his charge is not brought out thoroughly 
‘fit when the hunting season commences. Of course, when making this 
assertion, I am calculating that he has been allowed sufficient time, which 
will depend greatly upon the state in which he finds his horses in August. 
If they have been at grass, it is almost impossible 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 stimulat- 
ing food of the stable must be made gradually, or some of the important 
organs will assuredly fail. Hence the necessity for extra time, and tne 
addition which I have made to the calculated period for conditioning a 
