56 PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



should not have been forwarded sufficiently early 

 up to the time they ought to run. Now, such 

 horses as are employed for purposes of pleasure, 

 as saddle horses, if regularly fed and exercised, 

 and in other respects properly looked after, will 

 be healthy and kind in their skins, with a suffi- 

 cient portion of flesh on them, and they are then 

 considered by the pad groom to be in condition; 

 and so they are, and in a very proper state for the 

 purposes for which they are intended to be used. 

 But even in those horses, if neglected in any 

 of the little essential regularities in the manage- 

 ment of them, as that of their being allowed to 

 lie by only for a few days, a change in their 

 appearance, from the healthy state described, will 

 soon be observed. Indeed it is good training 

 that will sometimes make bad ones win. There- 

 fore the observations we have made in this chap- 

 ter are such as we particularly wish our readers 

 to pay attention to; and that they may not lose 

 sight of such observations, we shall in the follow- 

 ing chapters, in the practical detail, when getting 

 the horses ready, occasionally repeat some of the 

 remarks noticed here, merely to prevent mistakes 

 arising, as very trifling errors will throw race 

 hordes back in their condition, more than can 

 well be imagined by those who have not been 



