174 SERVICE. 



used, and put it on half an hour before the horse is to b* 

 mounted. 



Horses, from whom extraordinary exertions are not de- 

 manded, and those that are never expected or required to do 

 all that a horse is capable of doing, stand in little need of 

 inurement to work, and it is seldom that any is intentionally 

 given. When a saddle or draught-horse is purchased, he is 

 often put to his work at once, without any preparation. He 

 is treated as if he were as able for the work as it is possible to 

 make him. So long as the work is slow and not very labori- 

 ous, he may perform it well enough ; but this system will not 

 do for full work, whether fast or slow. If the horse has been 

 idle for a month or two, he is weak. It matters little that he 

 is plump and in good spirits. He may be able to draw a 

 load of twenty or thirty hundred-weight with ease, and per- 

 haps to draw it a considerable distance ; but on the next day 

 he is sore all over, stiff, feeble, dull, almost unable to carry 

 his own weight. If the same work be exacted day after day, 

 the horse loses flesh, and at last becomes unfit for any work. 

 But if the work be less severe at first, and gradually increases 

 from week to week, the horse at last acquires strength and 

 endurance greater, perhaps, than he ever before possessed. He 

 is then able to do with ease as much in a week as would have 

 completely knocked him up at the beginning. For slow, 

 moderate work, this is all the preparation which the horse 

 needs. At first, let it be very gentle ; and the weight he is to 

 carry or draw, and the distance he is to travel, may be in- 

 creased as he is found able to bear it. In preparing the horse 

 for hunting, racing, or coaching, the treatment must be some- 

 what different. 



