186 THE PERFECT HORSE. 



to be correct : and I only ask you to watcli a colt 

 twenty-four hours, and make your own estimate ; and, 

 if you are not astonished, I shall be. Now, no sensible 

 man will turn a colt of fine promise loose in the pasture 

 after the second year ; and I do not after the first. A 

 valuable colt is too valuable to risk in that foolish man- 

 ner, especially if he is a horse-colt. He should be 

 kept in a large, roomy stall, where he can be attended 

 to and trained day by day. But do not forget his 

 need of daily exercise. Do not think that a box-stall 

 will suffice. You might as well teach an eaglet to fly 

 in a large cage as to give the needed discipline to a 

 colt's legs, heart, and lungs in a box-stall. Many 

 most promising youngsters are fatally checked in 

 the development of their powers by lack of needed 

 exercise in their second and third years. I hold that 

 a colt needs a great deal of exercise; not to the 

 halter, which is good for nothing but to sweat out a 

 lazy groom, but sharp, quick exercise, in the taking 

 of which every muscle is brought into play, every joint 

 tested, and every vein, however small, swelled taut with 

 rapid blood, as is the case when allowed the liberty 

 of hill and plain, and to follow the promptings of 

 nature. Ah, me ! how full of bounding life the 

 youngsters are, when in a drove of twenty, heads up- 

 lifted and tails erect, their long hair streaming straight 

 out behind, they charge in thundering column across 

 the shaking field ! See how they tear along with hoofs 

 that spurn the plain, with changeful gait, and action free 



