AS TO SOUNDNESS. 147 



These noble creatures are trained to resist the enormously 

 powerful impulses to expend this energy on first coming 

 out of the stable ; but you will have to examine horses 

 not practised in restraint, and who "cannot carry corn;'' 

 therefore, if you do mount such a subject, be sure this 

 first outburst has subsided into indifference^ but never be 

 guilty of pushing your trial to the third stage, when pain 

 ensues. If you require to take a horse into a fallow 

 field you will induce pain, and when the horse comes to 

 stand and cool stiffness must be evinced, and if there is 

 no lameness it is no fault of yours. No man would take 

 a horse belonging to me into a fallow field to try his 

 wind twice. If a horse is being trotted round you in a 

 circle on grass, stop the process immediately you see 

 signs of distress approaching ; by this time you have 

 heard him breathe scores of times, a3id you ought to 

 have a fair estimate of his breathing capabilities. After 

 you have Hstened attentively to the breathing, have him 

 brought up to a standstill, and notice how long the 

 breathing is in quieting down to the normal. This is of 

 very great importance, as I shall show you at our next 

 meeting. At present I shall close these remarks with a 

 protest against the unscientific practice of allowing a 

 horse to go out of earshot, and having him galloped 

 past you or up to you. It is a most unreliable and un- 

 scientific proceeding. 



