94 PREPARATION. 



the ground was whilst the horse was with my father. For he 

 won directly afterwards, and whilst in the same condition as 

 on leaving Danebury, for it rained heavily in the short 

 interval before the improvement was shown. On the other 

 hand, the benefit of his system was exhibited in the improve- 

 ment oi Airy, Pounce, and many other horses. In no single 

 instance, however, can I call to mind that any horse was 

 made better in the hands of the great Whitewall trainer, who 

 always professed he adopted the same method of preparation. 

 And if he could not show the superiority of big condition 

 over light, I may ask who can } For no one ever had more 

 chances. 



I have no faith in a fat racehorse or a burly pedestrian, and 

 nothing will, without proof, lead me to think otherwise than 

 that both are gigantic mistakes.^ I know my theory and 



^ Man, as a pedestrian, has to undergo great stretches of endurance, his treat- 

 ment being analogous in many respects to that of the horse, as I have described it. 

 Briefly epitomised, it is thus given by the author of "Aberdeen : " — 



"After taking physic twice he commences his training; walks and runs about 

 twenty miles a day. He rises at 5 a.m., runs half a mile at the top of his speed, 

 uphill, walks six miles at a moderate pace, and at 7 breakfast ; walks six miles 

 after at a moderate pace, and at 12 lies in bed for half an hour. Then he walks 

 four miles and returns to dinner, immediately after which he runs half a mile at 

 the top of his speed, winding up with another six miles walking exercise before 

 returning home. Thus prepared for three or four weeks he takes a four-mile 

 sweat, running in flannel at the top of his speed the first thing in the morning, 

 proceeding with his usual work after. Added to which he amuses himself by 

 playing at cricket and similar games." 



If the violent exercise taken after a heavy meal and the excessive speed of his 

 sweats be excepted, the method of his preparation to render him fit to run is pretty 

 much the same as that of the horse, and where it differs I cannot agree witli it. 

 The book further says : — 



" It is as difficult to run a mile at the top of one's speed as to walk a hundred : 

 and he is fit, if he can do the first well, to accomplish the latter." Moreover, 

 it says: "It takes some months to complete. Crib weighed 16 st. at the com- 

 mencement of his preparation, and lost, in five weeks, two stone, being further 

 reduced to 13 st. 5 lbs., having had three sweats in the last month, and walked 

 and run thirty miles a day, besides exercising himself in other ways." 



Poor Crib, I think, from such severe work, could have been little more thnn a 



