64 EARLY RISING. 



over six hurdles. He was purchased foi- two liiindred pounds 

 by an experienced racing celebrity, and was of course put into 

 the hands of orthodox trainers, and liberally supplied with 

 physic. Since then he has never won anything in good company, 

 and at the last races on the same course over the same hurdles 

 he was easily beaten, and evidently for want of condition, 

 by his old stable companion, the black mare, that was so inferior 

 to him when both were in the same unprofessional hands, when 

 both were nibbling grass in the fresh air, and botli were alike 

 io-norant of Barbadoes aloes. The mare had all along been 

 treated in the same natural way. 



This is by no means the only instance we could give in 

 which nature and common sense have triumphed over drugs and 

 professional orthodoxy, but we give this case because the main 

 facts are on public records, and it is a case in which the two 

 systems were so well tested on the same good tempered animal. 



124. — The horse in training should get a light feed and 

 leave the stable at daylight in the morning, as walking or 

 cantering on the dewy ground or grass is very beneficial to his 

 feet. His daily exercise should be divided into two or three 

 periods of from one to two liours each, but any fast work he does 

 should be done in the morning. He should not be galloped at 

 all, either on the day he gets his sweat, or on the day after, and 

 take care that he is never galloped enough to produce any sign of 



stiffness. 



125. — Xo stereotyped rules can be laid down as to the 

 quantity of exercise any horse sliould get to keep him in good 

 wind and free from fat. Xo two horses want exactly the same 

 treatment. Some restless horses will take nearly all the exercise 

 necessary for them, by constantly pacing backwards and forwards 

 in a loose box. Some delicate feeders will not eat enough to 

 keep up to much work, and will eat least when most worked. 

 Others can hardly be kept free from fat by any amount of work, 

 and not a few horses have a load of internal fat, more injurious 

 than any other that must be got rid of, even though they may 

 look like skeletons on their neck and ribs. 



This latter tendency is the most difficult to estimate, and is 



