MODERN FAHRIER. 229 



122. Training for the Course. 



Much ignorance and prejudice prevails on the 

 subject of training for the course ; and many a good 

 horse has been killed or beaten in consequence of 

 the absurd practices too frequently adopted. Old 

 and foolish opinions are now in a great measure 

 exploded ; yet most people think it absolutely ne- 

 cessary to prepare horses for the field by the admi- 

 nistration of three strong purges. 'There seems,' 

 says a late writer, 'to be some magic attached to 

 the number three ; for the animal is always con- 

 demned to swallow a third dose, even though the 

 two first may have operated within an inch of his 

 life, and have left him in such a state of exhaustion 

 and debility as would require a considerable time to 

 overcome. Undoubtedly there are many cases 

 where purging is indispensibly necessary to get a 

 horse into condition : but, on the other hand, it is 

 equally true that there are thousands of horses 

 which undergo constant and severe labour without 

 any preparation of tlie kind whatever; and there 

 are no racers nor hunters in such high condition as 

 mail-coach horses, that are well fed and kept in cool 

 stables, and that travel a certain number of miles 

 regularly every day, and these horses are seldom 

 or never purged, except in cases of worms or greasy 

 heels.' 



Dr. Bracken, who was a great sportsman and a 

 great enemy to this indiscriminate practice of purg- 

 ing, cites a case of a mare of his own, which he had 

 run for six years, having in that time given her 

 only two purges. He also states that she had no 

 medicine whatever during that period, except about 

 the bigness of a pigeon's egg, of cordial ball occa- 

 sionally, and that she performed as well as most of 

 - her neighbours, having won eight plates out of 

 nine every year. 



