don't give the colt too MLXH. 24:^ 



brush and when he is going fast and true, you will hate 

 to stop him. So the virtue of patience will often need 

 to come into play. Development ceases, you must re- 

 member, when you get out the last link. The brush 

 should never extend beyond the point where you do 

 not believe he can improve with the next step. When 

 a horse tires he, in a great measure, loses control of his 

 legs and feet, and if weighted the trouble is aggra- 

 vated. He breaks, he falters in his gait, strikes him- 

 self, goes to hitching, hobbling — anything to rest 

 himself — and as a natural consequence of this work 

 goes back in speed, and loses precision in his action. 

 And, moreover, a thoroughly tired horse is ripe for a 

 break-down. We will suppose tluit you believe that if 

 driven out, your horse can trot a mile in 2:20, and to 

 satisfy yourself you start to do it. You feel him tiring 

 at the seventh-eighth pole, but you want to finish that 

 mile, and so hustle him along. In that last eighth the 

 strain on his muscles tells, they begin to relax, the 

 stroke is not so bold, true and far, and every sinew and 

 cord is strained to its utmost, and yet he is asked to 

 do more. He is not trotting now on his own courage, 

 naturally and with marked, precise stroke, but is 

 strivino: on mechanicallv, and is in the most favorable 

 condition for a break-down. Did you ever notice 

 how often race-horses break down in the home-stretch ? 

 It is the last straw — the call upon a weary horse to 

 respond — that tests most severely tendon and carti- 

 lage. So I very strongly desire to impress upon you 

 the importance of always working miles and half- 

 miles — when you work that distance at all— ^well 

 within the colt's limits. In treating of preparation for 



