310 HORSE TRAINING 



worst of the mud should, if very thick, be scraped or brushed off, no 

 water being applied to any part of the body but the muzzle and dock, 

 as the application of water increases the chances of mud-fever superven- 

 ing. Have the horse rubbed dry, his ears pulled, and legs bandaged 

 and well cooled; clothe him and leave him for an hour or two to enjoy 

 his food and well-earned rest. After which a brisk rub over with a 

 w T isp will suffice until morning. 



Treatment in Summer. It is still common practice to turn hunters 

 out to grass for the summer, but many sensible men are averse from 

 exposing their animals to the heat of the sun and the torments of attack 

 from flies, and therefore bring them into boxes for the day-time, providing 

 them with a feed of corn and some hay, and turning them out into a 

 meadow at night to enjoy the cool air, and receive the benefit of the 

 dew on their feet of a morning. Other owners simply reverse the shoes 

 and treat their horses as described in the chapter on Training the Trotter; 

 whilst some keep them more or less in work all the summer with a view 

 to retaining the desired hardness of condition, and thereby dispensing 

 with the severe course of training which has to be resorted to in the 

 month of August, in order that the animals may be quite fit to go in 

 September. Of all these courses that which ensures the hunter being 

 out at grass of a night and in a cool, shady box during the day is the 

 one which commends itself most strongly as the best to pursue, but each 

 case must be governed by its own peculiar circumstances; and it is not 

 every hunting man who is so fortunately circumstanced as to Jbe in a 

 position to treat his horses exactly as he would desire. 



PREPARING THE SHOW HORSE AND HARNESS HORSE 



All the varieties of show horse, be they hunter, hack, or harness 

 animals, require a similarity of treatment in order to prepare them for 

 competition in the show-ring. It is, of course, evident that each variety 

 must require a little different schooling, but all are fed and managed on 

 the same lines, the object of the owners of each being to send their animals 

 in before the judges in as blooming condition as possible, not so fat as 

 to lather and blow, but quite fat enough to conceal their faults, and as 

 fit and fresh as is possible for them to be. High feeding is consequently 

 a most important feature of the preparation of a show horse, save of 

 course in the case of the deep-ribbed, gross animals, which, if over-fed, 

 let down too much about the belly, and these must be treated to plenty 

 of judicious work, and be only fed upon sound, hard grain, with a little 

 chaff arid hay. 



