Wasting. 55 



tion of time which should be devoted to the cleaning of a 

 horse's head, neck and body, the legs, unless they are very 

 hairy, will have had full time to dry, and the earth and dust 

 which had previously been mud, can be easily brushed off. 

 A pricker and rubber will serve to clean the hoofs. 



A short way back I mentioned the subject of wasting, 

 which is a weighty one to many people besides jockeys and 

 G. R.'s. To do it properly a man has to get thin while 

 observing the rules of health. This procedure can be carried 

 out in only one way, and that is to take a maximum amount 

 of exercise and a minimum quantity of ordinary food. 1 

 have met crowds of such fat people that they weren't able 

 to see their toes, and yet there was not a single one of them 

 who did not insist that he or she was a remarkably small 

 eater. This is a harmless delusion which has no truth in it. 

 Who, I may well ask, has ever seen an under - fed horse, 

 especially if he be hard-worked, inordinately fat ? Although 

 we are not horses, our bodies obey the same laws as theirs. 

 As exercise increases the appetite; the process of healthy 

 wasting demands self-denial, which is the one virtue of all 

 others that the ordinary man or woman finds difficult to 

 practise. It is also unfortunate that the delicacies after 

 which we most longingly crave, are the very ones the con- 

 sumption of which adds most seriously to our weight. That 

 scrape of butter, that spoonful of apricot jam just to finish 

 up breakfast with, the sugar in our tea or toddy that glass 

 of beer which goes well with the harmless horse - radish, 

 that bit of fat which is necessary to bring out the flavour 

 of the filet de boeuf, that p&te de fois gras which makes 

 capital sandwiches, that trifle or Queen Mab pudding without 

 which dinner is incomplete, and fifty other things are the very 

 ones which must be eschewed by the person who aspires to 

 be thin. I may point out that a food capable of keeping the 

 body in a state of health must have a certain amount of 

 vegetables or fruit, and starchy elements, such as those 

 contained in bread, potatoes and rice. Although starch is 



