MODERN FARIIIER. 229 



122. Training for the Course. 



^Iiich ignorance and prejudice prevails on the 

 subject of training for the course ; and many a good 

 horse has been killed or beaten in consequence of 

 tlie absurd practices too frequently adopted. Old 

 and foolish opinions are now in a great measure 

 exploded ; yet most people think it absolutely ne- 

 cessary to prepare horses for the field by the admi- 

 nistration of three strong purges. ' There seems,' 

 says a late writer, * to be some magic attached to 

 the number three ; for the animal is always con- 

 demned to swallow a third dose, even though the 

 two first m.ay have operated within an inch of his 

 life, and have left him in such a state of exhaustion 

 and debility as would require a considerable time to 

 overcome. Undoubtedly there are many cases 

 where purging is indispensibly necessary to get a 

 horse into condition : but, on the other hand, it is 

 equally true that there are thousands of horses 

 which undergo constant and severe labour without 

 any preparation of the kind whatever; and there 

 are no racers nor hunters in such high condition as 

 mail-coach horses, that are well fed and kept in cool 

 stables, and that travel a certain number of miles , 

 regularly every day, and these horses are seldom 

 or never purged, except in cases of worms or greasy 

 heels.' 



Dr. Bracken, who was a great sportsman and a 

 great enemy to this indiscriminate practice of purg- 

 ing, cites a case of a mare of his own which he had 

 run for six years, having in that time given her 

 only two purges. He also states that she had no 

 - medicine whatever during that period,' except about 

 the bigness of a pigeon's egg, of cordial ball occa- 

 . sionally, and that she performed as well as most of 

 her neighbours, having won eight plates out of 

 nine every year. 



