TRAINING THE THOROUGH-BRED 305 



minsters, usually do best, or at all events in some cases remarkably well, 

 upon a course of very easy work, whilst other animals are perfect gluttons, 

 and require a large amount of exercise to keep their flesh dow r n and their 

 condition up. Constitution, temper, habit, and idiosyncrasy are seldom 

 alike in different horses, and even the same horse may change in these 

 respects from time to time. Nothing, therefore, in the shape of a hard- 

 and-fast rule can be laid down for the instruction of a trainer, who can 

 only be guided in his treatment of each animal by the knowledge gained 

 of him while under observation, and the amount of progress the horse 

 makes. 



Yearlings, after being mouthed and broken to driving-reins after the 

 manner described in the chapter on Training the Trotter, may be mounted 

 and gently taken by degrees through all their paces until they become 

 perfectly handy, when they may be regularly exercised, but always by 

 themselves. In the matter of work, three, or at the most four, furlongs 

 should be the limit of a yearling's canter, as if this distance is exceeded the 

 strength of the juveniles is certain to be overtaxed, to the prejudice of their 

 future speed and stamina. In the case of older horses being trained for 

 long distances, it is not desirable that they should commence by galloping 

 a course of the length they will have to run, but may begin at a mile 

 and gradually work up to the full distance. It is also a very bad and 

 objectionable practice to gallop any horse the long course at full speed; 

 but, on the other hand, steady work over it will be necessary to strengthen 

 his wind. The requisite number of strong gallops will depend in part 

 upon the condition of the animal, and in part also upon the weather 

 and state of the ground; as when the going is heavy the efforts of the 

 horse are correspondingly increased. 



Some trainers through conviction, and others through necessity, give 

 their horses comparatively little galloping to do; indeed, Tom Oliver was 

 wont to boast that he could get a steeplechaser fit for a two-mile race 

 by merely walking and trotting him about; but this is a bad principle 

 to work upon in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred. Long four-mile 

 sweats under heavy rugs were condemned by the best of the old writers 

 upon preparing horses, in spite of the fact that Samuel Chifney, in his 

 book, speaks of sweating horses six miles three days a week. A severe 

 course of sweating is objected to by most trainers of the present day, 

 for even though the practice is popular with some people, there can be 

 no doubt that if carried to anything like excess it is weakening to the 

 horse. If horses in training are away from their stables for an hour 

 and a half at a time it will be quite enough for them, and it is always 

 best to avoid taking them out during the heat of the day early in the 



