PKEPAKATIOH FOE SWEATING. 221 



liability of their taking a wrong curve when driven is much 

 lessened. 



As you remarked, Never Mind has a very queer manner 

 of progression, and I can hardly think it is his natural 

 walk. If so, it is " werry peculiar," as Sam Weller would 

 say, and totally unlike any walk I ever witnessed before. 

 May it not be ascribed to the severity of treatment he met 

 with at the hands of the man who worked him so hard, 

 and who sweated him so often, that there was neither 

 vigor nor proper life left in him ? As it resembles so much 

 the manner in which a horse would walk when nearly 

 prostrated from exhaustion, the inference is, that he ac- 

 quired it from having been forced to take long walks, 

 when he ought to have been allowed uninterrupted repose. 



As he is more gross- than any of the others, he will be 

 the first we should sweat ; and as I contemplate putting 

 him through that ordeal in a few days, we will now begin 

 his preparation. Half an hour before the time for the 

 others to come in, he can be stopped and allowed to graze. 

 His hay will be curtailed a little to-night, and the quantity 

 of grain slightly increased. It was formerly my plan, 

 when a horse was in the situation he is, to give him a d^e 

 of physic, and I would have thought any one a mere tyro 

 in the business who neglected to do so. Many still fol- 

 low that plan, and would think it impossible to condition 

 a horse without the use of drastic drugs. Had some one 

 asked me the reason why I used physic, I should have 

 answered that it was to decrease the belly, rectify a dis- 

 ordered action of the bowels, expel parasites, prevent hu- 

 mors and plethora, cure swelled legs, and refresh and en- 

 liven the animal. Blood-letting, diuretics and diaphore- 

 tics, were also connected with the violent purgations, and 

 considered prime necessaries in the treatment of horses 

 expected to go fast. If a horse is not healthy, the veteri- 

 narian ought to be consulted. But as long as he feeds 

 10* 



