CONDITIONING PONIES. 155 



1st April, I would, therefore, advise that they 

 should be taken up about the 22 nd February. Long 

 walking exercise on roads is the best thing for con- 

 ditioning ponies, especially as regards their legs and 

 feet, which, if the animals are gross, will take longer 

 to get hard and fit than their bodies. Half the sprains 

 and lamenesses which occur at the beginning of a 

 season arise from ligaments, tendons, and bones being 

 put to unaccustomed w^ork. Besides, when a pony's 

 legs have been hardened by exercise, blows take little 

 effect on them, whereas a comparatively trivial knock 

 may give a pony that is out of condition a big leg, 

 which may necessitate the animal being rested and put 

 on soft food for about a week, with the result that he 

 may get thrown back so much that he will take a 

 long time to get fit again. Here we may adopt 

 my editor's axiom, that the more work a horse or pony 

 gets, the better, so long as his appetite and condition 

 continue good, and his legs and feet remain sound. 

 The average hunting-stud groom loves to have all his 

 work done by nine o'clock in the morning, and then 

 shut up his animals in their stable for the remainder 

 of the day. His idea of daily exercise is doing about 

 eight or nine miles, principally at a walk, with a little 

 trotting. The first day the owner goes out, he will 

 perhaps ride (or have his horse ridden) ten miles to 

 the meet, hunt him three hours, covering, say, sixteen 

 miles, and have him ridden back another ten miles. 

 This not immoderate amount of walking, trotting, 

 galloping, and jumping, which on occasions may 

 be easily increased to a total of fifty miles, will be 

 more than equivalent to a whole week's work given 

 by the stud groom ; and then the owner will be 



