CHAPTER XXI 



BACIKG. 



TRAINING FOR THE RACE — THE STABLES — FEEDING AND EXERCISE — LAWS OP 

 RACING — TABLE OF WEIGHTS FOR AGES — HANDICAPPING. 



By Racing, in the proper acceptation of the term, is meant 

 a trial of speed between running horses. Match-trotting, 

 although more in vogue in this country, is less intimately 

 connected with the science of breeding horses, which it is 

 one of the objects of this work to discuss. 



With the moral bearing of the subject of horse-racing 

 we have nothing to do. It is used as a means for im- 

 proving the breed of horses, and this result is certainly 

 attained, for there can be no doubt that more capital is de- 

 voted, and more attention given, to the raising of thorough- 

 bred horses than could be expected to take this channel if 

 no such remunerative market for fine horses existed. It 

 is true that the thorough-bred horse is frequently of but 

 very little practical use for anything but racing and breed- 

 ing, but as a getter of horses for all kinds of ordinary 

 work, whether for the saddle or harness, he is not only 

 unequalled, but almost indispensable, since without him 

 we could not have for any kind of work so good an animal 

 as it is possible to get by an infusion of thorough blood. 

 Even if it were probable that thorough-bred horses would 



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