TRAINING THE RACE-HORSE. 169 



of the adult horse, and carry eight stones and up- 

 wards at a racing pace — a weight unheard of upon 

 so young an animal in former times. How far, 

 however, this forced maturity and its consequences 

 — namely, severe work — and the excitement of 

 high keep, at so tender an age, are favourable to 

 him or to his produce in after life, is another ques- 

 tion ; but the use of a system should never be esti- 

 mated by the abuse of it. If our race-horses are 

 not, and we believe they are not, so stout in their 

 running as formerly — that is to say, thirty years 

 back — the cause may fairly be traced to the great 

 value of produce stakes and others, which bring 

 them to the post at so early an age ; so much so, 

 that, in the language of the Turf, a four-year-old 

 colt of the present day is called " the old horsed 



But a still more material alteration for the bet- 

 ter has taken place within the last few years in the 

 stable management and condition of the British 

 hunter, arising principally from a different treat- 

 ment of him in the non-hunting months. It had, 

 from time immemorial, been the usual remark of 

 the sportsman, on his hunters being turned out of 

 their stable in the spring, for the supposed necessary 

 advantao^e of the " summer's run at ^rass," that it 

 was to be lamented that the hunting: season was 

 concluded, as the condition of his stud was so per- 

 fect. The fact was, that until then, or nearly till 

 then, they had not been in really good condition 

 at all ; and, how strange soever it may appear to 

 any one reflecting upon the subject, by the act of 

 turning them to grass for this " summer's run,"" he 



