HOW TO MAKE MONEY BY HORSES. 171 



grooming, exercise, and proper warmth, will in most 

 cases produce ; the last (if these nostrums have any 

 effect at all) it is but temporary, and is slow destruc- 

 tion to the animal; each groom has his favourite 

 nostrum, in which he has implicit faith, and the more 

 ignorant he is, the stronger his faith, and probably 

 the more ridiculous, if not destructive, his panacea 

 ■will be. The attendant on a cart-sire once told me, 

 as a valuable secret, that he gave his horse oil of 

 vitriol, by steeping a few corns in this abominable 

 compound. I own to have been guilty of a breach of 

 confidence, for I forthwith acquainted his master of 

 the circumstance. 



I believe I have now run through the catalogue of 

 such horses as may be made to pay money, without 

 their owner becoming a trader ; but before any one 

 attempts to look to making them pay, he would be 

 wise to look to himself, and I should recommend his 

 being as alert a critic on his own qualifications, as in 

 that of the horses he buys and uses for such purpose ; 

 the chief attribute required in the man is judgment ; 

 in the horse, merit. Judgment, as regards any de- 



