CHAPTEE XI. 



PREPARING PONIES FOR MEASUREMENT. 



As in India certificates of height are granted to 

 ponies that need not be either in racing or even robust 

 condition, preparation for measurement has become in 

 that country an established practice. Knowing that 

 such an ordeal will reduce the height of a pony, for the 

 time being, from one to two inches, which is equivalent 

 to 12 to 24 Ibs., I need hardly point out that an owner 

 must adopt this means of getting the weight off, if he 

 wishes to run his ponies on equal terms with those of 

 other men. It would be idle to deny that this practice 

 inflicts cruelty on ponies, and is a potent incentive to 

 deceit on the part of their owners. It is, however, only 

 fair to say that the present rule is a great boon to 

 owners, who, in former times, had to get their ponies 

 measured before every race for which they ran. At the 

 same time, its evil consequences might wholly, or to a 

 great extent, be obviated, if it were enacted that a pony 

 not holding a certificate of height should be measured 

 on the day of, and before, each race for which he was 

 going to start ; but that his owner could claim a certi- 

 ficate for him in any such event at the height for which 

 he was measured for it, if the measuring authorities 

 were satisfied by the pony's running that he was in 



