40 



MODERN HORSE MANAGEMENT 



[chap. 



unnatural means, and as a rule it cannot last 

 long. This state is maintained by excessive feed- 

 ing on heat-producing food, excessive grooming 

 and hand massaging, and excessive training. A 

 reaction is very liable to set in unless a racehorse 

 is untrained very gradually. Old racehorses are 

 seldom any good for work. 



159. Then, again, the dealer's "condition" 

 is another kind ; he aims at fatness, not fitness. 

 This means flabby and fattened muscles ; in fact, 

 the horse's whole system is in a bad, loose con- 

 dition, and he soon becomes fatigued by a little 

 work. He is kept idle, so that on being taken 

 into the ring for a few minutes he prances about 

 and shows much energy, and the would-be horse- 

 man thinks he has a bargain. Next day he takes 

 the horse for a run across country, and after a 

 mile his horse is "done up." 



As stated in Chapter III., the dealer in the 

 ring or show-yard prevents a horse from shying 

 by keeping its attention turned towards him and 

 his assistants, by keeping it always on the 

 "jump," by showing it the whip, and by keep- 

 ing it on soft feed and other food calculated to 

 keep it fat. 



On account of want of exercise, and through 

 fear of the whip, etc., the horse appears 

 animated. He takes little notice of things he 

 would normally shy at, and prances about 

 as long as the whip and arms of the assistants 

 around are continually in motion. He associates 

 these movements with previous cuts from the 

 whip, and pays great attention to them through 

 fear. My advice to purchasers of horses is to 

 beware of the horse dealer. 



160. The only method of obtaining condition 

 is to give the right amount of the best kind of 

 the right food, judiciously combined with the 

 right amount of healthy exercise continued over 

 a long period, which is more easily said than 

 done. Added to this is the great importance 

 of punctuality in feeding and the appreciation 

 of each horse's habits and peculiarities. For this 

 reason it is of the utmost importance that one 

 man should feed a horse all the time. 



It is of the utmost importance to ascertain 

 if the horse is on its feed before taking it out 

 for exercise, and also that the manger is abso- 

 lutely clean before each feeding hour. The 

 sooner horse owners realise that conditioning is 

 not an easy matter the sooner will they be in 

 possession of horses that are able to do the work 

 required of them. It takes at least six months 

 to get a soft horse into condition for steeple- 

 chasing or flat racing ; it may take a year. 

 Every few weeks the food, grooming and exer- 

 cise are increased very gradually. These must 

 be decreased immediately the slightest sign of too 

 rapid advancement is discovered. It requires 

 much time to transform a really fat horse, and 

 still longer to transform a horse that is much run 

 down through neglect. Asking poor horses or 



soft horses to do hard work is the surest way 

 to get lameness and disease, and is the surest 

 sign of bad horsemastership. 



161. When once condition has been gained, 

 then hard work will do no harm ; falls and 

 minor accidents will probably be withstood by 

 the body which is ready to stand strains and 

 shocks. The tissues of an unconditioned horse 

 will not stand strains, and so we often find that 

 breakdowns are the result of the horse being in 

 bad condition. 



When a horse is in a hard state hard work 

 makes his condition better ; in fact, without hard 

 work condition will begin to go. For this reason 

 well-conditioned horses, if left idle for a few 

 days and then given hard work, often fall sick. 

 Lymphangitis and azoturia are common ailments 

 from this cause. A horse in good condition 

 should not be given more than a day's rest, and 

 on this day his hard feed must be cut down very 

 considerably. A soft feed should be given the 

 night before the day of rest, which also has the 

 beneficial effect of clearing his system. If such 

 a horse is not required the second day he should 

 be given at least one hour's good walking exer- 

 cise. There is nothing like a good walk for keep- 

 ing up condition. 



When a well-conditioned horse has been idle 

 for some days on reduced rations, his work must 

 commence gradually again ; sudden work may 

 cause much harm. {See "Azoturia, Sec. 572.) 



The worst, yet perhaps the commonest, form 

 of ignorance displayed in this matter is that of 

 allowing a horse to be left in all the week, prob- 

 ably on full rations, and on Saturday and 

 Sunday to give it three or four hours' hard work. 

 One sees this displayed almost every week — no 

 wonder so many good horses are physically 

 injured. This applies to private-owned horses, 

 and especially saddle horses. 



162. Conditioning should be cumulative ; an 

 hour's walking exercise every day is not nearly 

 sufficient to keep a horse in good condition. 

 Private-owned horses suffer far more from want 

 of exercise and over-feeding than over-exercise 

 and want of feeding. 



Contractors must be carefully watched by 

 owners of horses to see that they supply forage 

 up to the contract standard. Neglect of this pre- 

 caution is the cause of much waste of money 

 and many horses being improperly fed. The 

 weight must also be ascertained to see that it 

 is up to contract. 



I condemn nearly all the stock condition 

 foods on the market ; most of those that I have 

 had any experience with do little good. They 

 contain in many cases about 80 per cent, oxide 

 of antimony (black antimony), which does a 

 horse more harm than good. For condition 

 powders, etc., see Section 163. 



A small teaspoonful of saltpetre (pot. nit.) 

 once a week in the feed will keep a horse's 



