TREATMENT AFTER A HARD RUN 187 



should I have a horse, the legs of which have become 

 stale, I clothe him well, and have him led by a lad 

 on a hack, and sweated in that way." With valuable 

 horses, such as Mr Weedon had to deal with, this 

 precaution is good. 



There is one sentence in the letter which exactly 

 accords with my doctrine in the stable. " The time," 

 says Mr W., " I begin to condition my hunters [though, 

 as I observed to you before, they are partly in condition 

 all the year) is about the middle of August. I trot at a 

 moderate rate, but sufficient to warm them, and thus 

 until the middle of September, when I begin to sweat." 



There is but one point on which Mr Weedon and 

 myself are at issue. He tells me he gives his horses 

 from four to five hours' walking exercise at this period 

 of the year. In one of my letters on this subject I 

 have stated my objections to long-continued walking, 

 and those objections are founded on my own experi- 

 ence, and the experience of others, carrying more 

 weight than my own. The only cases of diseased 

 hocks in horses previously sound, which have occurred 

 in my stable, have been produced by travelling at a 

 foot pace on the road ; and I gave a very good reason 

 why such should be the case. Bullocks walking up 

 to London market, laden with flesh, frequently throw 

 out spavins on the road.^ 



In a former letter I have, I think, said nearly enough 

 on the subject of stinting hunters with hay, but I have 

 not been sufficiently explicit as to water — in the 



^ This sentence appears to be worthy of attention, being new to 

 the Editor.— F. B. 



