198 RACING. 



ourselves of his full power and capacity, we must take him out of the 

 hands of nature and place him in those of art. The * Gentleman's 

 Recreation,' published nearly a century and a half ago, must draw 

 a smile from the modern trainer, when he reads of the quackery 

 to which the racehorse was then subjected, a pint of good sack 

 having been one of his daily doses. Another wiseacre gravely in- 

 forms his readers that only one month is necessary to prepare a 

 horse for a race ; but if he be very fat and foul, or recently taken 

 from grass, he might require two. The same authority has also 

 his juleps and syrups, finishing with the whites of eggs and wine 

 internally administered, and chafing the legs of his courser with 

 train oil and brandy. If these worthies could be brought to life 

 again, it would astonish them to hear that twelve months are now 

 considered requisite to bring a racehorse quite at the top of his 

 mark to the post. The objects of the training groom can only be 

 accomplished by medicine, which purifies the system ; by exercise, 

 which increases muscular strength ; and by food, which produces 

 vigour beyond what nature imparts. To this is added the neces- 

 sary operation of periodical sweating, to remove the superfluities 

 of flesh and fat, which process is more or less necessary to all 

 animals called upon to engage in corporeal exertions beyond their 

 ordinary powers. With either a man or a horse his skin is his 

 complexion ; and whether it be the prize-fighter who strips in the 

 ring, or the racehorse at the starting-post, that has been subjected 

 to this treatment, a lustre of health is exhibited, such as no other 

 system can produce. . . . Some nonsense has been written by the 

 author of a late work (' Scott's Field Sports ') about omitting sweat- 

 ing in the process of training ; but what would the Chifneys say to 

 this ? They are acknowledged to be preeminent in the art, but 

 also to be very severe, perhaps too much so with their horses in 

 work ; and without sweating them in their clothes, they would 

 find it necessary to be much more so than they are. It is quite 

 certain that horses cannot race without doing severe work ; but 

 the main point to be attended to is, not to hurry them in their 

 work. As to resting them for many weeks at a time, as was 

 formerly the case, that practice has long been exploded, and ex- 

 perience has proved that not only the ^acehorse, but also the 

 hunter, is best for being kept going the year round at times, of 

 course, gently. With each, as with man, idleness is the parent of 

 misfortune. 



It was well known to ' Nimrod's ' contemporaries that he 



