CUTTING DOWN. 163 



and low, and he has to run on hard ground, it would be 

 advisable to let him run in his shoes." 



Cutting down. To get ponies, galloways, and horses 

 for " give-and-take" races down to a height lower than 

 nature ever intended them to be, owners have often 

 used the most ingenious expedients. Shoeing a la 

 Charlier with a quarter of an inch allowed for plates 

 will, of course, be a direct gain of a quarter of an 

 inch. Again a horse will measure lower after a hard 

 gallop than at any other time, especially if he be allowed 

 to stand, after the exercise, long enough to get chilled. 

 But the real art lies in teaching a horse to measure 

 low. A horse's height will only be affected by cut- 

 ting down the heels, for the length of the toes makes no 

 difference. Better, indeed, never run a horse at all than 

 to be obliged to resort to such expedients. Teaching a 

 horse to measure low is simply the art of making a fool 

 of the person appointed at a race meeting to determine 

 horses' heights, and to accomplish this, the owner has pre- 

 viously to train his animal to stand quiet in the most 

 advantageous position. Some horses measure lowest with 

 their heads down, others with them up, and all with 

 their fore legs wide apart as viewed in front. The latter 

 dodge often passes muster, though of course no one 

 would fail to see, if a horse's fore legs were stretched out 

 as viewed in profile. 



When an animal is well within the limit o^ height, 

 it is the most foolish policy to try to gain a small allow- 

 ance of weight, by even very slight paring down, if such 

 cutting bring the foot out of its natural slope, or be 

 liable to make the horse go tender ; for a quarter of an 



