APPEARANCES FREQUENTLY MISLEAD. 97 



deal on him, or drawn fine. Any man accustomed to 

 look at race-horses can judge whether a horse appears 

 to be in that condition a horse should be on coming 

 to the post ; but I am quite clear no man but the 

 trainer can tell whether a horse is or is not in that 

 state he (that is, this particular horse) should be. 

 We can judge tolerably accurately by the look and 

 feel whether a horse is in health or sound ; but we 

 are sometimes deceived even here ; for I have known 

 horses at their best whose muscles would feel soft and 

 all but flabby, instead of being elastic and firm to the 

 touch ; nor could any care make them otherwise, or 

 even give them a coat as good as many hacks. Still 

 such horses may be as fit to go as they can be made : 

 but if a horse, feeling and looking in such suspicious 

 condition, had only received the general treatment of 

 horses of his class both as to stable management and 

 exercise, the person who trained him would not have 

 done his duty, for no man should be satisfied with 

 such condition unless he had tried every change of 

 treatment training admits of, and found that none 

 could improve such a horse. 



To show that even trainers as well as owners some- 

 times think once without thinking twice, I remember 

 seeing a lot of young ones running together, perhaps 

 about a dozen : two of them were in the Derby ; the 

 winner was one of the two : he won by about half a 

 length ; all the others well up. The trainer remarked 

 that this would put the owner of the winner in good 

 spirits for the Derby. He rather stared at me when 

 I said, "if I was the owner it would put me out of 

 spirits." I went upon this principle I never saw 

 twelve very superior ones together in my life (as 

 young ones) ; nor do I believe any man has. When 



VOL. II. H 



