224 ON SADDLE HORSE 



may require. But, in the rules which the author has 

 given us, he only makes mention of the former of 

 these exercises, and, even here, he does not point out 

 the advantages horses will derive from its effects ; he 

 only observes, " that walking exercise is the most 

 proper for the first week," and after this period, he 

 tells us it may be increased to a trot or a canter. These 

 few words are the commencement and conclusion of 

 his rules for exercising horses in order to get them into 

 high condition. Immediately following, are our 

 author's direction for grooming. He says, when 

 speaking of the exercise which he recommends, "Should 

 it occasion any degree of perspiration, the horse should 

 be carefully cleaned, and otherwise attended to, as soon 

 as he gets into the stable." The above few lines 

 appear to be all the directions the author has given us 

 in his writings relative to exercising and grooming 

 horses. They are certainly very harmless, and may be 

 sufficient to keep some horses in health : but they are 

 of much too feeble a nature to be of any particular use 

 in the getting of strong horses into any thing like 

 racing form. Yet the author appears to have written 

 on the subject of "condition" with great confidence; 

 for, in his second volume (page 218), he again gives 

 the definition of the word "condition," and further 

 tells us that this subject has been fidly treated on in 

 the " Compendium." I have attentively read the 

 whole of the author's statement (which is not more 

 than forty-two pages) on the " condition" of horses, 

 and from them I have quoted such parts as I think are 



