NATURE OF EXERCISE . 153 



When a horse is restricted for some time to slow 

 gallops, his style, however good it may have been 

 originally, will gradually accommodate itself to this 

 pace, and will, in course of time, become permanently 

 altered, or take a long period to recover. The reason 

 for this is that the muscles which are called into play, 

 obeying a beneficent law of nature, gradually acquire a 

 style of action which will enable them to perform their 

 accustomed task with the least possible exertion to 

 themselves. Thus, when they have become habituated 

 to a slow gallop, they will be unable to act at a fast 

 pace to the best advantage, simply because they are 

 unused to it. This law is well proved by the fact that 

 training horses for long distances has a very prejudicial 

 effect on their speed for short races. Most men, who 

 have sparred much, know how slow the use of heavy 

 dumb-bells makes them. 



Continued slow work spoils the action of the horse, 

 in that it accustoms him to move his muscles slowly 

 and to take short strides. Besides this, as it does not 

 call into play his muscles of forced respiration (see page 

 161), which are greatly used at fast paces, it is entirely 

 inadequate to render him " fit " to race. Work on 

 deep ground causes a horse to shorten his stride and 

 to " dwell " on it. The practice of carrying heavy 

 weights makes the animal go short. Training a horse 

 on a hilly course, when he has got to race on level 

 ground, is a great mistake always supposing that 

 he is sound for, from constantly going up hill, he soon 

 learns to " go high ; " as he finds, by doing so, that he 

 lengthens his stride. I need hardly say that although 

 some really good horses, like Lecturer, the Cesare witch 



