52 CONDITION OF HORSES. 



taken out of the stable to be shown, but with lungs that 

 would hardly permit them to frolic for a longer period. 

 With their coats blooming, their manes and tails nicely 

 combed, and with their hoofs freshly oiled. This, in his 

 judgment, is absolute condition. 



The carter wishes his horse to carry as much fat and 

 flesh as possible, thereby to increase his w^eight, and enable 

 the animal to pull heavy loads. To obtain the means of 

 doing this he employs various nostrums, and not unfre- 

 quently cribs from his master's granary. When he beholds 

 his teams fat to repletion, he, with pride, pronounces them 

 to be in beautiful condition. 



Thus condition in horses, though applied in different 

 senses, yet, when properly considered, means always the 

 same thing. The horse is intended, by the word, to be in 

 an unnatural or forced state, up to the requirements of an 

 arbitrary master's will ; but, when carried to extremes, not 

 in such a condition as is altogether fairly compatible with 

 the creature's enjoyment of existence, or directly equal to a 

 state of health which promises prolonged life. 



With so artificial a state, no matter to which sort of 

 condition the horse be subjected, any sudden change is 

 likely to interfere. There is no practice more foolish than 

 that of suddenly turning a horse into a field, in order that 

 he may support life upon grass. It is true herbage may be 

 the natural food of the animal, but the horse of our stables 

 is not in a state of nature. In his free state the animal 

 does no work, neither, it may be said, does he wdien turned 

 out to grass. This, at first, may appear very true, but the 

 hardest of all work is any exercise we are unused to. The 

 editor of this edition has seen a countryman sweat over a 

 letter for half a day, and at the end of the time the man 

 has only spoiled several sheets of paper. So also he has 

 witnessed a lawyer perspire, when positively doing nothing in 

 a garden. Then the horse turned into a field has to do that 

 which it is not used to perform. In the stable its food is 

 brought to it, in the field it has to walk for its living ; thus 

 there is a total change of habit by the day, and at night, 

 instead of a warm stable, with a good bed and plenty of 

 clothing, he has to lie dowai perhaps on the damp grass, 

 with the heavens above him, and nothing to cover his 



