428 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



case with Gladiateur, Foxhall, Kisber, Iroquois, Rayon 

 d'Or, and other " distinguished foreigners." No doubt, 

 as John Osborne says, our horses are not so hard as they 

 were forty or fifty years ago. That arises, we venture 

 to think, from the prevailing hot-house system of rearing 

 young stock as much as from any other cause. 



Our hero's views on the character and constitution 

 of horses of the past and the present were expressed as 

 follows : 



" The method of training horses in the present 

 day is quite different to what it was when I 

 began. Horses are very much lighter now ; they 

 have neither the bone nor the substance that 

 thoroughbreds had fifty years ago. Of course, 

 in the old times they were sweated a good deal. 

 Heavy cloths were put on them, and they were 

 galloped three and four miles in them. That 

 plan has been discontinued for many years. I 

 don't know that sweating is weakening to a 

 horse. Old John Scott was a great believer in 

 sweating and bleeding. I am certain that the 

 constitution of horses of the present day would 

 not stand such work; the modern breed is 

 neither so robust nor so strong. Formerly it was 

 quite a common thing for horses to run three 

 and four-mile heats. If they were subjected to 

 that now they wouldn't be able to come out of 

 the stable for a month after. I have had some 

 experience myself of riding horses in heats 

 two-mile heats ; and I have ridden in four-mile 

 races, but never in four-mile heats. I am fully 

 convinced the constitution of horses of the 

 present day is not as strong as it was forty or fifty 

 years ago. It puzzles me to account for the 



