OF FARRIERY. 



421 



CHAPTER X. 



CHIFNEY'S REASONS WHY TURF HORSES DEGENERATE, ETC., 

 OBSERVATIONS ON THE TURF, ETC 



REASONS WHY TURF HORSES DEGENERATE, ETC. 



The following remarks are most enlightened 

 and practical, and merit the most profound 

 attention from men of the turf, coming from 

 the quarter they do. Chifney says . — 



1 have said Horses change in their twice 

 running. If a Horse is in perfect fitness for 

 Tunning, he immediately becomes exhausted,, 

 little or much , he must then change in his 

 running. A Hor^ cannot keep his perfect 

 fitness for runni^P more than one race, Hill 

 rested. I have seen one sweat between their 

 twice rimning change Horses for the worse 

 astonishingly. It is destruction to Horses to 

 sweat them in the manner they are sweated 

 at Newmarket, as the practice there is to sweat 

 them once in six days, sometimes oftener , and 

 between those days of sweating, it is usual for 

 the Horse to go out twice a day, each time 

 having strong exercise. In these sweating 

 days the Horses are mostly covered with 

 cloths, two or three times doubled, and go in 

 their sweats six miles, more or less, and at 

 times go tolerably fast. Directly the Hcrse 

 pulls up. he is hurried into the stable, which 



is on the spot for that purpose. As sood as 

 he gets in, there is often more cloths thrown 

 u>pon him, in addition to those he had been 

 sweated in. This is done to make the Horse 

 sweat the more, and he stands thus for a time, 

 panting, before he is stripped for scraping . 

 that with being thus worked, clothed, and 

 stoved, it so affects him at times, that he keeps 

 breaking out in fresh sweats, that it pours 

 from him, when scraping, as if water had been 

 thrown on him. Nature cannot bear this. 

 The Horses must dwindle 



I think, in the first place, that the Horse 

 has been too Ion": at this sort of work for his 

 sinews ; then the clothing and stoving him 

 forces his juices from him in such quantities, 

 must destroy their spirits, strength, and speed ; 

 and much clothing jades Horses. A Horse 

 don't meet with this destruction when he runs> 

 for then he is likely to be lighter in his carcase, 

 lighter in his feet, having plates on, not shoes, 

 which is wonderfully in favour of his sinews -, 

 and he is without clothes, and not stoved, •a.anx 

 his course in running is very seldom more than 

 four miles ; therefore this difference in sweats- 

 ing and .running is immense 

 5 o 



