I04 PREPARATION. 



CHAPTER XII. 



PREPARATION {concluded) 



Horses differ in constitution — Treatment must be varied as necessary — Horses 

 should not be run in public too often ; evils of the process — Fitness ; its i-igns 

 indicated ; only to be achieved by perFeverance ; anecdote of the late Mr. R. 

 Stephenson — In-and-out running considered, and examples — ^es^er &nd Char<m: 

 their performances explained ; the lesson to be learned therefrom — The 

 American system of training — Contrast of distance and pace — Extra clothing 

 — Proofs of its inferiority in rarity of their victories here — Prioress at New- 

 market — Mr. Ten Broeck and Mr. Sanford — Condition of Preakness when 

 at Epsom. 



The trainer's difficulties are numerous and great. No rule 

 can be laid down with mathematical precision that will enable 

 him to overcome them. We must be content therefore to 

 accept general rules, and apply them as far as may be prac- 

 ticable in varying cases. In a stable of fifty horses or less, it 

 may be said that no two of them will thrive on exactly the 

 same treatment. When it is so, it is the exception. They 

 differ in many ways : in constitution, in temper, in variability 

 of health, in .soundness and in appetite, as well as in other 

 things ; and each individual case should be carefully studied 

 and treated accordingly. This special treatment applies to 

 the time and manner of feeding (the change of hay, corn, 

 and green food) and in other ways attending to their com- 

 fort in the stable, and to the regulation of the work given 

 to each animal in his exercise. Nor is this all. Physic is 



