CHAPTER IV 



ON THE DISTEMPER. 



Race-horses, like all others, are of course liable to 

 become constitutionally amiss, and they are very often 

 subject to a disease commonly called the distemper, 

 with which some of them are at times severely affected, 

 much to the annoyance both of their owners and 

 trainers, as they are thereby thrown back in their con- 

 dition, and are often prevented from running for the 

 different plates and stakes for which they may have 

 been entered. 



It has been a rule with me whenever the disease has 

 made its appearance among horses in the regiment in 

 which I am serving, to remove those which have been 

 affected from those which were in health ; as I have 

 frequently observed, from horses standing next to each 

 other in bail stables, (the custom in his Majesty's 

 service), that those which have been labouring under 

 the disease have not been removed more than a day or 



