50 FLAT-RACING EXPLAINED. 



it has upon his speed, let him get on something 

 that can go a bit and chase a loose horse in a field, 

 and if that animal does not show him all I hare 

 expressed he will be blind indeed. As a hunting 

 man, intimately acquainted with horses all my 

 life, and having had experience of them under al- 

 most every condition, I do not think one would be 

 able to boast much of one's alphabetical knowledge 

 in the matter of horse-lore should I not have made 

 the discovery long ago that speed, whether of high 

 or of low degree in horses, was the outcome, or 

 derived from, the spinal construction of the animal 

 frame. 



A horse possessing very great speed must neces- 

 sarily have abnormal spinal structure wherewith 

 to effect what I must call 'prompt recoil action' so 

 soon as the full hind-quarter leverage has been ex- 

 pended. This 'recoil,' this recovery to the original 

 position after the full power of the whole frame 

 has been exerted, it should always be remembered, 

 is the initial or primary condition of speed in 

 horses. — 



In the course of a single season how constantly 

 we see it represented that certain horses have 'lost 

 their speed.' And do we not also see those animals 

 going from bad to worse, without a suggestion they 

 are troubled with any kind of unsoundness? If it 

 were fair to their owners to do so, I think it would 



