PREPARATION FOR WORK. 207 



calculating that he has been allowed sufficient time, which will 

 depend greatly upon the state in which he finds his horses in 

 August. If they have been at grass, it is almost impossible to get 

 them ready by the middle of November, but a well summered 

 horse soiled in a loose-box with a proper allowance of corn, may 

 be thoroughly prepared by that time if he is set to work by the 

 middle of August. This will allow of two clear preparations, with 

 an intervening week for cooling physic. Should the horse be up 

 from grass, another month or six weeks at least will be required, 

 which must be employed in giving him nothing but walking exer- 

 cise, with a dose of physic at the beginning, and repeated at the 

 end of three weeks or a month. Horses at grass in the summer 

 are seldom allowed any corn, and the change from grass to the 

 more stimulating food of the stable must be made gradually, or 

 some of the important organs will assuredly fail. Hence the 

 necessity for extra time, and the addition which I have made to 

 the calculated period for conditioning a hunter summered indoors, 

 is barely sufficient for this purpose, when he is full of grass or of 

 the fattening food which is given to make him up for the dealers. 

 In either case great care and some experience are necessary in 

 altering the entire management of the animal, so as to give him 

 corn and exercise enough to prepare his frame gradually for the 

 strains which it will have to bear in the hunting field, without 

 producing inflammation. With all the objections which I hold to 

 physic, I must confess that here I think it to be indispensable ; 

 and invariably, as soon as a raw horse is settled in the stable, I 

 should get him thoroughly cleaned out before I began to give him 

 hay and corn. I have always found it advantageous just to allow 

 a couple of days to elapse before giving the physic, which will 

 serve to fill the large bowels with the new kind of food. A mash 

 should then be administered at night, and repeated if necessary till 

 it has had the desired effect in softening the dung, when the physic 

 may be given. Two or three days will elapse before it has set 

 sufficiently to allow of walking exercise ; but as soon as this can be 

 ordered with safety, the horse should be walked out twice a day 

 for an hour and a half each time, or two hours in the morning and 

 one in the evening, whichever may be preferred. The division of 

 the exercise into two periods is far better than keeping the green 

 horse out for so long a time as three hours, which will make him 

 weary ; whereas, the shorter period will not tire any horse, and a 

 mid-day rest will restore his whole frame, and enable him to go 

 out again in the evening as cheerfully as ever. I need scarcely 

 observe that the shoes should be attended to, and the feet put in 

 proper order, for three hours' walking exercise in ill-fitting shoes 

 will do great harm, especially to feet that are not accustomed to 

 their pressure. By persevering with steady slow work, and feeding 



