ON TRAINING GROUNDS. 199 



according to the constitutions of the horses, and the 

 time of their engagements, there will be the less to be 

 done in the second preparation, at which time the wea- 

 ther may be hot and the ground hard. There are some 

 few strong, craving, large-carcassed horses (I allude to 

 such of them as may occasionally have to sweat as 

 often, perhaps, as three times a fortnight) which are so 

 frequently in strong work, that although the above 

 necessary precautions are taken of working them early 

 in the spring, yet they cannot be allowed to be kept so 

 long in gentle work after their physic as those horses 

 which I have just been speaking of; nor can they often 

 be allowed to go over the sweating ground lightly 

 clothed, and at such a pace as will just keep the length 

 in them, as many of the more delicate ones may do. 

 Such very craving horses have not only to go over the 

 sweating ground at a tolerably good sweating pace, 

 but most of them require to have a pretty good lot of 

 sweaters on, or it will, I expect, be found rather diffi- 

 cult to keep what is called the waste and spare off 

 them; and it is this sort of work on hard ground 

 which is the occasion of great concussion taking place 

 in the feet of many such horses, producing fever and 

 inflammation in them, and which sometimes goes on 

 progressively and imperceptibly until it terminates in 

 what is now termed the naricular disease, but what 

 was formerly called " being groggy." This is a de- 

 scription of disease which we do not find horses of 

 slow movement (as cart horses), affected with, not- 

 withstanding these last mentioned horses are daily 



