FOOD. 95 



When I was a boy, it was the custom with some 

 grooms to make bread composed of equal parts of 

 beans, wheaten-flour, and oat-meal, and not unfre- 

 quently, some stomach medicines, such as are generally 

 used in cordial balls ; these being mixed together into 

 a paste with eggs and ale, and then baked. This sort 

 of bread was given to the horses for a short period 

 before they run ; when sufficiently stale, it was crum- 

 bled and mixed with their corn. This practice, which 

 is a most pernicious one, has, I hope, long since been 

 done away with. When race-horses are once taken 

 into training, they should be kept in the stables both 

 summer and winter until they have completed their 

 running. If turned out for three or four months, as 

 hunters usually are, (but which, by the bye, is very 

 injudicious, as I have often known those with large 

 carcasses come up with very bad and sometimes in- 

 curable coughs) they would doubtless get rid of the 

 staleness arising from the work they have had. Theii' 

 constitutions would no doubt be much refreshed by 

 the beneficial effects of the pure air and green food, 

 provided the season were dry and the paddocks not 

 too large. Their legs and feet would also be much 

 benefitted, the former from the gentle exercise they 

 would give themselves in this natural state, and the 

 latter from the soft surface of the ground ; yet these 

 advantages are more than counterbalanced by the mis- 

 chief which at times results. Those race-horses which 

 require refreshing the most, are those of a strong con- 

 stitution, and such as have been much abused by strong 



