SIGNS OF FITNESS. . 45 



public opinion ; nor was it, in the result, unrewarded. From 

 their employers, the trainers received well-earned and freely- 

 given thanks ; from the public, an ovation such as a victorious 

 General might be proud of The public had erred, and had 

 to confess it ; being forced to admit that as horses run in 

 all shapes and forms, so they do in every conceivable state 

 of condition, so far as the eye can judge. 



To insist at all hazards on a glossy coat is, in my opinion, 

 only on a par with the barbarous custom of forty years ago 

 or more, to shorten the docks of all horses young or old. 

 Usually they were subjected to this treatment during the 

 first or second week after their arrival at the training quarters : 

 the operation being performed by the severance of a few inches 

 of the vertebra of the tail, staunching the hemorrhage by the 

 application of powdered resin and the actual cautery. 

 Happily for the tortured animal, the practice has long since 

 ceased to exist, as has nicking and nerving, that old and 

 useless veterinary practice ; " more honoured in the breach 

 than the observance." All men now prefer to see the noble 

 animal as formed by nature, rather than in a mutilated 

 shape, disfigured at the hands of capricious humanity. 



We have learned something of the essentials, in feeding 

 and stable management, of good condition ; and it will now 

 be well to describe the signs that enable a person to judge 

 correctly of the fitness of a horse to do what may be required 

 of him. 



Every one who has seen or takes an interest in a racehorse, 

 talks eloquently, in conventional terms and set phrases, on 

 his condition; a point in which one horse so resembles 

 another, that existing differences often escape all but the 

 experienced eyes. Horses that look pretty much alike are 

 praised or condemned, rightly or wrongly, as fancy dictates. 



