TRAINING BY SHORT REPEATED GALLOPS. 199 



advisable with a sound, stout, second-class Australian, 

 which, with 9 st. 7 Ibs. up could do, on a level course, 

 his mile in 1 m. 48 s., or 1J miles in about 2m. 18 s. 

 But there is such infinite variety in the way different 

 horses stand training, that it would be fruitless to give 

 more than a general outline of the system to be 

 pursued, with some hints and general directions which 

 I hope may prove useful. All the same, however well 

 up a man without personal experience may be in book 

 lore on training, the chances are that he will ruin a 

 horse or two in his first essay ; but as soon as he gets 

 some practical experience, he will quickly learn how to 

 apply his book knowledge. 



Training by short repeated gallops. There 

 are many horses whose legs would not stand the pre- 

 paration I have described. With such animals, the 

 trainer may adopt, with advantage, the system of short 

 repeated gallops, instead of that of the ordinary long 

 ones. For instance, in place of sending the horse a 

 mile gallop, he might tell the riding lad to walk him 

 round the course to the half-mile post, and gallop him 

 at the speed ordered, then walk him round to the same 

 place, and gallop him as before. In this case, the 

 muscles will have performed the same work as they 

 would have done, had the distance been one mile, and 

 the suspensory ligaments would not have run a tithe of 

 the danger of becoming sprained ; for the time that these 

 structures are peculiarly liable to injury is after the 

 horse has begun to tire in his gallop (see Veterinary 

 Notes for Horse Owners). At other times accidents 

 rarely occur, except when a horse puts his foot on 

 uneven ground, or hits himself. 



