PREPARATION FOR FAST WORK. 303 



Tne improvement of motive parts is considered in the nex: 

 section : the deterioration in that which follows it. 



PREPARATION FOR FAST WORK. 



THE natural powers of the horse, contrasted with those he 

 acquires, are feeble beyond what a stranger can conceive. 

 Some people are prone to talk nonsense about nature. They 

 would have horses placed as nearly as possible in a wild state, 

 or a state of nature, which, I suppose, means the same thing. 

 In the open fields the horse, it is said, has pure air, a whole- 

 some diet, and exercise good for the limbs and the constitu- 

 ion. God never intended so noble an animal to suffer con- 

 finement in a dark and narrow dungeon, nor to eat the artificial 

 food provided by man. Much more is said ; but it is not worth 

 repeating. The truth is, setting argument aside, we must have 

 service, even at the hazard of producing diseases that never 

 occur in a state of nature. Before the horse can do all, or 

 half of all that he is capable of doing, he must be completely 

 domesticated. In the artificial management to which he is 

 subjected there are many errors ; but instead of condemning 

 the system by wholesale, it were wiser to rectify what is 

 wrong. A horse, kept in a state of nature, would not last 

 half a day in the hunting-field ; and at stage-coaching twp or 

 three days would kill him. 



CONDITIONING, TRAINING, AND SEASONING, as words, have 

 nearly the same meaning. The first is used most in reference 

 to hunters, but occasionally to all kinds of horses ; the second 

 is confined almost entirely to racers : and the third to horses 

 employed in public conveyances, mails, stage-coaches, and so 

 forth. They relate solely to the processes and agents by which 

 strength, speed, and endurance, are conferred. The terms have 

 little or nothing to do with the precautionary measures con- 

 sidered in the first section of this chapter ; they are limited 

 to the means by which the horse is inured to severe exertion. 

 As I proceed I use the words synonymously, and employ 

 reparation, or preparing for work, with the same meaning. 



THE OBJECTS OF TRAINING, whether for the turf, the road, 

 or the field, are the same. They vary in degree only, not in 

 kind. For either of these purposes the horse must have 

 speed, strength, and endurance. This last word is not quite 

 so expressive as I wish. It is intended to signify lasting 

 speed ; it relates to the distance ; speed is in relation to time ; 

 strength, to the weight carried or drawn. In stables, th 



