120 THE HORSE. 



tion, and the blooming coat are doubtless necessary. Produced 

 as tliey must be by hot stabling, thick clothing, and extremely 

 high and pampered feeding, I do not believe that such treat- 

 ment would be beneficial to American roadsters, but the reverse. 

 And, apart from the parade and show — which, as they are a 

 principal part of the object for which the European gentleman 

 keeps his carriage horses and park hacks, cannot be sacrificed — 

 1 do not believe that it is advantageous to the hardihood, 

 healtli, or endurance of weather, of such animals in Eng- 

 land. 



I remember, it struck me with great wonder, some five and 

 twenty years ago, when every young gentleman, in Kew York, 

 kept his fast trotter, or fast team, to see those animals driven at 

 a rate I had never before heard of, some eight or ten miles, till 

 they were in a lather of sweat, and then left to stand in the 

 open air with tlie thermometer not mnch above zero, for two or 

 three hours, with only a single blanket over them, at Cato's 

 door, while their owners were talking "horse," within, round a 

 blazing fire. 



I at once recognized that no English horse, stabled and 

 groomed as English horses are groomed and stabled, could 

 have been subjected to such treatment, without incurring al- 

 most the certainty of an inflammation of the lungs, and the 

 greatest imaginable risk of being rendered worthless for ever 

 after. 



It is true, that in England such trials are not required of 

 horses, ownng to the far greater equability of the climate, in 

 which the hottest summer day rarely exceeds 75 to 80 degrees, 

 or the coldest winter day falls lower than 25 to 20 degrees 

 above zero ; so that there is, perhaps, little more difiference be- 

 tween the heat of a warm English stable and the outer air, 

 than tliere is between that of a cold American one and the 

 wdnter atmosphere without. 



Still I believe that the heating treatment, in some degree, 

 unnerves horses, deprives them of the power of enduring long 

 protracted exertion, privation, hardship, and the inclemency 

 of weather. And I farther believe that tlie pampering, high 

 feeding, excessive grooming, and general maintenance of horses 

 iu an unnatural and excited state of health and spirits, has an 



