horsehood. If a hunter is only fit to follow hounds at 

 five or six years of age, how, by the same reasoning, 

 can a thoroughbred colt be supposed to be equal to 

 the severe strain put upon him as a two-year-old ? 

 He is made to discharge the laborious work of an 

 adult while he is still a comparative infant. He is 

 raced when his bone formation is little more than in 

 cartilage form, and his tendons and muscles like 

 gelatine — in short, he is driven in the racing-reins 

 when he should only be learning his lessons of being 

 led in the " nursery strings." Thus, when the period 

 proper for racing arrives, he is doing stud work — or, 

 what is worse, he is on the retired list of " broken- 

 down " racers, with a racing record of about one- 

 twentieth the length of his natural ancestral pedigree, 

 so far, at least, as wins count. 



FEEDING AND TRAINING. 



The best kind of food for training purposes is a 

 generous allowance of old potato oats, crushed, and 

 over-year hay of strong bone, clean, dry, and free from 

 trefoil and clover of all kinds. Both hay and oats 

 should be grown upon the strongest clay soils possible. 

 It is an advantage to give the oats crushed, but the 

 hay should be served in its natural state. Care should 

 always be taken that the hay is free from mould and 

 dust, or coughing and bad wind may follow. 



The colt should have regular exercise, but it is 

 altogether impossible to lay down a particular set of 

 directions by which to be absolutely guided. The 



