CHAPTER IX. 



ON CLOTHING, ETC. 



Various are the sorts of clothes, and various are 

 the purposes for which they are used, about a race- 

 horse ; but one very principal use of them in the 

 training of horses, is to lighten those of strong consti- 

 tutions of their flesh, without injuring their legs ; and 

 this they do most effectually, if they are sufficiently 

 and properly applied on their sweating days. To shew 

 that they are not to be dispensed with, let us, for ex- 

 ample, suppose a craving, lusty horse to be put into 

 training, and that he is to work without clothes. The 

 groom, with a view to have the horse light, must get 

 what is commonly called the waste and spare off him, 

 or the horse cannot possibly run his length at a racing 

 pace ; therefore, to attain the point of getting such a 

 horse clean in his muscle without the application of 

 clothes, the groom must give him not only very strong 

 gallops, but he would be obliged to sweat him often at 

 very long lengths ; at least, twice the distance he would 



