TRAINING PONIES. 233 



tion, and having acquired it, one will see at a glance 

 what each horse lacks. 



The most unerring sign of condition in an athlete is the 

 fact of his being able to go through hard work without 

 becoming thirsty ; so will the trainer also find that as a 

 horse gets fit, the avidity with which he takes his water 

 after his morning gallops will decrease ; while staleness 

 is almost always accompanied by more or less thirst. 



Training Ponies. Ponies should be galloped neither 

 as long, nor as fast I mean as regards comparative 

 speed nor as often as big horses, though high caste 

 Arabs sometimes form an exception to this rule. 



For ordinary country-bred ponies, six weeks' training 

 \vill generally be quite long enough, provided they com- 

 mence in hard working condition. As a rule, they 

 should not be galloped oftener than twice a week, nor 

 farther than half a mile, except when the distance they 

 have got to run is much longer, in which case they may 

 be sent on an extra bit. Sweating and long slow gal- 

 lops should be avoided, while I would advise that the 

 pace of the work should be kept pretty brisk. 



In some parts of India as in Cachar only ponies 

 are used for racing, and are often asked to go long dis- 

 tances, frequently over a mile. Let us suppose a country- 

 bred pony to be trained for a race of that length, and 

 that he has six weeks in which to get fit ; for him I 

 would advise something like the following preparation : 



First fortnight. A gallop at J speed, on Mondays and 

 Thursdays, for mile, twice on the same morning, with 

 a walk for a mile between the spins. 



Second fortnight. Single gallops on the same morn- 



