242 THE IMPROVED ART OF FARllIERY. 



CONDITION. 



Condition, as regards horses, is a term conventionally 

 cvell understood ; but beyond the precincts of che 

 stable it is neither precise nor technical. The term, in 

 common parlance, might be supposed to imply nothing 

 more than the symptoms and appearances which . 

 usually betoken health. Thus, when a horse is in per- 

 fect health, he ought, under this view of it, to be con- 

 sidered in perfect condition ; and on the contrary, when 

 a horse is in any respect out of health, he should be 

 considered as out of condition — that is_. in a condition 

 that neither fits him for perfect service to his owner ; 

 nor for perfect comfort to himself. But condition is 

 used with a latitude of signification much exceeding 

 this, and in its popular acceptation among horsemen is 

 more comprehensive but less perfect in its meaning = 

 Thus, a farmer rides a horse to market m full vigour, 

 but from constant exercise he is out of flesh, or from 

 being exposed to the air he may have a very rough 

 coat ; this horse with the stabularian would not be said 

 to be in condition. And though he may be in a state 

 to do every thing a rider ought to require of him, yet 

 if he should pass in this state into the hands of a 

 dealer, he must make some material alterations 

 in him before he, the dealer, will pronounce him 

 in condition, or before he can expect to sell him as 

 such. Having, however, passed through some changes 

 in his appearance, and being now termed by the dealer 

 in condition, he would yet be found by the horse- 

 amateur to want further alteration before he would be 

 fitted to undergo severe exercise, or be in a condition 

 to hunt, or even to work as a superior hackney. Sup- 

 posing him to have undergone some further changes, 



