EAOE-HOKSES.] 



MODERN VETERINAEY PRACTICE. 



[UACE- H0ESE8. 



clothes, and go further in his sweats ; for, he 

 himself being heavy, has, with boy and clothes, 

 at times a great weight upon his legs. There- 

 fore, what with this pressure, and his work 

 heating him, it makes his sinews full and 

 weak ; and thus working a little too fast, or 

 too long, upon his sinews at one stretch, they 

 are forced out of their places. This once 

 done, the horse seldom stands training after. 



" It is ignorant cruelty that causes a num- 

 ber of horses to be unskilfully lamed at New- 

 market; when gentlemen not only lose the 

 use of the animals and their money, but they 

 are deprived of the sport they otherwise might 

 have. 



" The principal care in training horses for 

 running, and hunters and hacks for hard 

 riding, is, to train the legs to be able to carry 

 the carcase. To do this they should first be 

 used to short exercise, short gallops, short 

 sweats, and time given between their work for 

 their sinews to rest, or the best of legs will 

 become destroyed. 



" The legs of horses are very soon destroyed 

 at first coming into work ; but when they 

 have had time to be well trained, scarcely any 

 running or riding will hurt them. 



" Some few, I am informed, have a way of 

 pinching their race-herses in their meat and 

 water. This is another certain way of perish- 

 ing a horse in his spirit and strength. Where 

 a horse is too large in his carcase, he should 

 be well fed, as horses are, I believe, for the 

 most part, at Newmarket ; and, instead of 

 pinching him in his water, where a horse is 

 greedy of it, he should he watered very often, 

 and, at all times, as much as he will drink given 

 to him. He will then drink less, and come 

 straight and strong in his carcase. 



" The outcry is, Why are there so few good 

 runners, or that the turf-horses degenerate ? 

 Some say they think it is from running horses 

 too young. My opinion is, that the best run- 

 ning mares are trained till their ru?ining is 

 gone from them little or much ; then they are 

 turned into the stud, exhausted of their juices. 

 Perhaps they drop a foal in the following 

 year, and so on, year after year, suckling one 

 foal while breeding auother. The mare thus 

 turned into the stud, is drained of her 

 strength ; and being kept continually breeding, 

 without she lays herself barren a year or two 



M 



by her mis-standing to the horse, she will 



remain bereft of her strength. But the chance 

 manner of her being allowed to lay herself 

 fallow, gives her an opportunity of recovering 

 her juices or strength, to enable her to breed 

 a stronger foal, provided the horse that is put 

 to her, is in the same proper state. As it ia 

 with the mares, so is it with the horses. They 

 are turned out of training into the stud, 

 drained of their nature ; and the better run- 

 ners they are, the more are they pressed with 

 mares, and in such numbers as to exhaust 

 their prolific powers. 



" These are my reasons why the turf-horses 

 degenerate in length, speed, and beauty." 



Lord Coleraiue was confederate on the turf 

 with his friend, Mr. Robert Pigott, when his 

 celebrated horse. Shark, was at his best ; Mr. 

 Pigott trusted the whole management of his 

 stables to him. He says — 



" I do not believe there ever was a better 

 horse than Mr. Robert Pigott's Shark, except- 

 ing Eclipse, which was a very uncommon 

 horse. I will tell you what Shark could do, 

 by which you may give a tolerably good guess 

 whether you have nearly the best horse of 

 his year. Run five or six of your young colts 

 together, one mile : if they all come in well 

 together, you may be sure that not one of 

 them is worthy to be kept in training, except- 

 ing you have one amongst them which is an 

 uncommonly large-sized colt, large-limbed, and 

 loose made. It is possible that, when he 

 comes to his strength, and fills up, he may 

 turn out a good horse. If you have one colt 

 which, in the trial, runs clear away from all 

 the rest, you may expect that he will turn out 

 a good runner. Take him, about a fortnight 

 after, run him with two of the others which 

 were the two first of those beaten ; for you 

 must not run him with the worst or last of 

 the lot. Let him give them both twenty-ono 

 pounds. If he does not beat them cleverly, 

 you have no right to expect that he is the 

 best, or nearly the best, horse of his year. I 

 will mention a wonderful trial, when Shark 

 was coming six years old. He ran from the 

 Ditch-In. I borrowed a mare, a good runner, 

 of Mr. Vernon. I think her name was Ata- 

 lanta, but I cannot mention her name for cer- 

 tain. I gave Mr. Vernon fifty guineas for the 

 hire of her ; but then I agreed to have her 



81 



