186 HORSE POKTRAITUKE. 



ing, dancing, and faming, would have to be walked bj 

 themselves, or in a small enclosure. There are others 

 with legs so weak, or having been injured, that give way 

 from very little walking. If known to possess great speed, 

 I would train such animals ; otherwise they would poorly 

 pay for the trouble. The most powerful auxiliary to aid 

 us in treating these is the Roman or Turkish bath. With 

 its aid, we are enabled to get rid of superfluous matter, 

 and can train horses that would be exceedingly trouble- 

 some by any other method. The Turkish bath, however, 

 is rather an expensive adjunct to a training-stable intend- 

 ed for the preparation of trotters. The tight room could 

 be made, by taking extra pains in the construction of a 

 box stall, by having matched double partitions, thus leav- 

 ing a space for dead air. The furnace, and pipes for con 

 veying the heated air, would he expensive, and their man 

 agement a source of trouble. If we train horses witb 

 shaky foundations, some other method will have to be de- 

 vised to keep them from giving way. What that course 

 will be can only be determined by the wants of the patient, 

 and the exigencies of the case. The hot-air bath, the vir- 

 tues of which were so highly extolled a few years ago, has 

 undoubtedly been the means of bringing horses to the 

 post fit to run and win, that could not have stood the or- 

 dinary preparation. I do not think it is of any service in 

 horses that are sound and strong. I never look for it to 

 come into general use, and in a trotting-stable, there would 

 be less necessity for it than in cases where a speedy unsound 

 horse was wanted to merely run a dash of a mile or so, the 

 winning of which would ensure a good deal of profit. A 

 more proper time to enter into the discussion of this ques- 

 tion will be when we are giving the horses their first sweats. 

 At that time we will have the subject-matter fairly before 

 us, and will endeavor to examine it in all its ramifications. 

 PUPIL. At which period I will be all attention, as that 



