EXERCISE. 83 



for racing, cannot be maintained at their utmost for any length of time ; 

 yet we cannot see the difficulty of maintaining a horse in condition 

 through the svmimer, that is, in such condition that no preparation is 

 needed for hunting, except a few gallops to improve the wind, if only the 

 animal be well fed, well groomed, and exercised two hours a day. It is 

 an advantage, or at least more profitable, if the owner can utilise the 

 horse by riding him or working him in harness during the summer 

 months. 



Officers' horses in cavalry regiments are so treated, and they are gene- 

 rally in better condition without any preparation at the beginning of the 

 hunting season than the horses of most sporting men after a vast amount 

 of preparation, physic, and work. 



145. "Summering" of hunters. 



The so called restorative process of " summering " hunters is open to 

 many objections. The animal after his four months' holiday comes up 

 fat, gross, weak, and out of sorts. He requires physic and sweating to 

 reduce his bulk, extra grooming to bring his skin into order, beans to 

 give firmness to his muscles, and carefully regulated, and relatively to 

 his condition severe exercise to develop his strength and wind, and after 

 all he is generally not half fit to go at the beginning of the season. All 

 this, unless we are in error about officers' horses, is needless waste of time 

 and trouble, and, moreover, a severe and unnecessary trial to the animal's 

 constitution. 



Again, if health is to be preserved, horses, which for eight months in 

 the year are accustomed to be groomed, ought to be groomed during the 

 remaining four. It is a fallacy to suppose that the horse, when thrown 

 out of work, does not require to be groomed. In reality he needs it far 

 more for some months, than when at work. The secretions of his body, 

 which have made use of the pores and glands of the skin (vide Chapter 6, 

 on Grooming) as their organs of excretion, continue to do so for some 

 time after those glands have ceased to receive the stimuli, namely, exer- 

 cise and grooming, which originally brought them into activity. Hence 

 they choke, and in consequence effete matters remain in the system ; and 

 in the end the horse requires, as we might expect, two or three doses of 

 physic to clear his system. 



Here, then, is a break-down of the theory of summering hunters. The 

 so-called restorative process ends in an amount of constitutional disturb- 

 ance which requires physic to correct it. This constitutional disturbance, 

 caused by want of proper exercise and grooming during the summer 

 months, has been, we believe, the origin of the tliree doses of physic 

 traditionally supposed to be essential to getting hunters into condition, 



146. But ivill legs and feet stand continual work ? 



But it may be said, — granting that a horse may be in better condition 

 from having been worked through the summer, yet his feet and legs will 

 not stand this perpetual strain and hammering. 



Feet, we answer, if of good conformation and properly shod, never 



