" ALL TOO BRIGHT TO LAST." 347 



trainer indeed, many an intelligent stud groom 

 could make him so; but perfect training is the bring- 

 ing him out in that state that by no possibility of 

 treatment it could be made better. 



To any one totally unacquainted with training, it 

 would sound a little bordering on the mysterious to 

 say, that, if a horse is brought out in a proper state 

 to run on a particular day, should the race be put off 

 for two days, it would materially affect the horse's 

 condition, or rather fitness to go on that day ; for 

 his general condition would not be changed by the 

 change of the day, but his perfect fitness to go un- 

 doubtedly would. There is no mystery in this. One 

 simple reason will suffice to explain why the horse 

 would suffer from the change. He had, we will say, 

 done his proper work, and taken his finishing sweat, 

 so as to prepare him to run on the Wednesday : the 

 race is put off to the Friday : it would not do to give 

 him another sweat between the days; consequently, 

 if he is a horse disposed to throw up flesh quickly, he 

 w r ould be by no means in his best state to run on the 

 Friday. In fact, a horse cannot be kept up to his 

 highest state of condition for any length of time : it 

 is (if I may be allowed the expression) a tension on 

 the animal system no horse could bear ; like the 

 strings of a harp, the system will not bear to be kept 

 to the highest pitch without risk of injury. 



It may be asked how, if a race-horse cannot be 

 kept at this high state of condition to run, do we 

 manage with country horses and leather platers who 

 are continually going? I should say in reply, that 

 though such horses are quite fit to go in the races for 

 which they run, and among the class of horses with 

 which they go, they certainly are not at that 



