185 



CONDITION. 



THE object of exercise is the preservation and 

 maintenance of that healthy state or general 

 capacity for work which is known in stable 

 technics as condition. To acquire it, good food, 

 pure water, well ventilated buildings, scrupulous 

 care and regularity in all stable routine, and 

 exercise in the open air, are indispensable. 



Early morning is usually chosen among racing 

 and hunting grooms, in order to avoid the heat 

 of day, rabble of boys, or annoyance from any 

 other quarter. Sometimes the exercise is ap- 

 portioned, one part to the morning another to 

 the afternoon. This is done frequently in winter 

 when hunting is stopped by hard frosts, the 

 stable yard being well covered with short litter. 

 It also admits of other work being carried out, 

 which would not be done if all the exercise were 

 taken in the morning. 



The usual process of getting a horse into con- 

 dition, consists in the use of certain doses of 

 physic. Some grooms go so far as to assert, 

 "No horse can be got into condition without 

 physic." Not long ago a certain gentleman 

 lent his name to the statement that the Turkish 

 bath was the only means whereby condition could 

 be obtained. Practical experience, however, com- 



