PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. 55 



any animal that is fat internally run its best pace 

 but for a very short distance. Yet this rule does 

 not in the same degree hold good as to the fat 

 there may be on the surface of horses' bodies. 

 If hardy horses in training do not draw fine on 

 their external surface, from the work they may 

 have been doing, they may, nevertheless, have 

 got rid of a sufficient portion of the superfluous 

 fat in their insides; and if I found them right 

 in their wind, for the length they may have to 

 come in their races, I should not mind their 

 coming out high. Such horses had better come 

 out thus to run, than that they should be drawn 

 fine for appearance sake, at the risk of very much 

 injuring their constitutions, and thereby disabling 

 them from running in their best form, for the 

 length in which they may be engaged. 



Another thing to be observed in the training 

 of race horses is, that they should be got ready 

 to run precisely to the day on which their en- 

 gagements are to take place, as they will not 

 remain in the artificial state of condition to which 

 they may have been brought but for a very short 

 time; and unless they run on the day for which 

 they are prepared, they will change more or less, 

 and but seldom for the better, except indeed they 



