156 THE HORSE IN HISTORY 



the race and the hundred and sixty crowns of the 

 sum." 



Several writers tell us that Nicolle Dex had 

 trained his horse on white wine, but the truth 

 would seem to be that he himself trained on 

 white wine. We are informed, in addition, that 

 the horse was not given any hay. 



" Le dit Seigneur Nicolle n'avoit point donne 

 de foin a son chevaulx, ne n'avoit beu aultre 

 chose que du vin blanc." 



What the horses of four hundred years ago 

 were chiefly fed on is uncertain. We know 

 that usually they were given hay, but we find 

 mention made repeatedly of "horse bread." 

 Probably this horse bread resembled the modern 

 oil cake upon which cattle is fed, for we read that 

 it tended to make the horses' coats " soft and 

 glossy," an attribute of oil cake of which horse 

 dealers are well aware. 



It seems hardly necessary to mention in this 

 connection that in Henry VIII.'s time, and in- 

 deed down to a much later period, the art of 

 training horses, as we understand it to-day, was 

 practically in its infancy. Also we are able to 

 infer that it was quite a common practice to give 

 a horse a drink of water just before running him 

 in a race, and that what we to-day allude to as 

 the art of judging pace in connection with race 

 riding probably had never been even thought of. 



In Henry VIII.'s reign the habit of naming 



