54 CONDITION. 



regard to his looks — essentially a very minor consideration. 

 So, too, if he feed badly, his work should be reduced ; whilst 

 it should at all times be apportioned to suit individual 

 constitutions and the state of the legs of the different 

 animals. 



These things properly attended to, then, the trainer who 

 knows the daily progress of his horses, can give an opinion 

 worth having on their condition — but no one else can. I may 

 therefore be emboldened to ask, with all the respect that 

 is due to them, what can owners know of these things } They 

 are little better than casual observers, and can only form 

 their judgment on that most fallacious of all tests — the eye; 

 and by no parity of reasoning can be said to know when, and 

 when only, a horse is fit to run. It is so even with ourselves 

 out of our own stable. I should assuredly find myself 

 lamentably self-deceived, were I to hazard an opinion on the 

 condition of a horse prepared by any one else. It would be 

 the same with the most experienced trainer or the astutest 

 judge of horseflesh, were the one or the other to pronounce on 

 the condition of any animal they had not seen before or for 

 a length of time. Just as in sickness, the qualified profes- 

 sional, the veterinary surgeon, will not trust his own senses 

 entirely, but will consult the attendant before prescribing ; 

 or the physician will inquire his patient's state of the 

 nurse, so should the owner seek his information of the 

 trainer. 



But I can give instances of even more extravagant notions 

 on the part of owners than those already cited. On one 

 occasion a nobleman told me (and I have not the slightest 

 doubt said that which he thought strictly true), as the 

 reason he sent his high-priced yearlings to John Scott and 

 the cheap ones to me : " He thought no trainer could train 



