INCIPIENT LAMENESS. 219 



merits we possess. A love for the beautiful is just as com- 

 patible with handling horses, as in the professions absorb- 

 ing the greater proportion of the talent of the country. I 

 sincerely hope the day is not far distant, when a liberal 

 education will be thought essential in the training of a 

 good horseman ; and I know that reading and study are 

 rewarded in this profession, as in those where erudition 

 is considered the only foundation to build upon. I am 

 certain that Jane's pictures and Susan's music would have 

 charmed you fully as much, if the artists had been less 

 favored by nature in being themselves so beautiful. 

 But 



PKECEPTOE. We will dispense with the continuation of 

 the sentence, as I do not want to be led into a disputation 

 at present, nor to argue an abstract question of art, fur- 

 ther than to heartily agree with you in the necessity of 

 education in our business. We will now attend the even- 

 ing walk of the horses, and without utterly tabooing the 

 subjects that have been uppermost in my mind, we must 

 give to training the study it so imperatively demands, if 

 we would succeed in getting all of our horses in proper 

 order, so that they may trot their races according to their 

 best ability. 



In former conversations, we discussed the effects of 

 walking, and I do not know that much more can be said 

 at present pertaining to that part of the exercise! I al- 

 ways like to see the horses when at their walk, and by 

 closely watching them, can distinguish if anything is going 

 wrong. When a horse is fairly settled in his walk, there is 

 very little variation in the way in which he performs it; and 

 when he does change, I always try to find out the reason 

 that causes him to go differently. Slight strains, that 

 unattended too often result in serious lameness, sometimes 

 show more plainly when a horse is walking than when 

 going at a faster gait. By closely scrutinizing the move- 



