PREPARATION FOR FAST WORK. # 307 



would have killed him at the beginning ; and the cause of 

 death would have been found in the lungs. I can offer nc 

 other proof in favor of this supposition. It will be observed 

 in many parts of this work, that I am compelled to suggest in- 

 quiry when it would have been more pleasant to state the re- 

 sult of inquiry already made. But these matters have been 

 so much neglected, that it does not seem to have occurred to 

 anybody that investigation is needful. Our knowledge is in- 

 complete, yet no one speaks as if there were anything to 

 learn. [It is far more complete than our author thought. He 

 had not learned it himself, and commits the error of thinking 

 that no one else had.] 



It is well enough known, however, that to improve the 

 wind the horse must have a great deal of exertion. Purging, 

 sweating, and other emaciating processes, remove all obstruc- 

 tion to the lungs ; exertion, at such a pace as to quicken the 

 breathing, does the rest. But all horses do not need the 

 same quantity of work to improve their wind. In some it is 

 naturally very good. They have large nostrils, a wide wind- 

 pipe, and a deep chest. By proper training their breathing 

 becomes remarkably free and easy ; hardly any pace or dis- 

 tance produces distress. They go as far and as fast as the 

 legs can carry them. When over- worked it is generally the 

 legs, not the lungs, that fail. There are as many other hor- 

 ses whose wind is bad, never very good by any manage- 

 ment. They have small nostrils, and a small chest, neither 

 deep nor wide. In these the wind fails before the legs ; 

 work makes the others leg-weary ; these it over-marks, pro- 

 ducing congestion, or inflammation in the lungs. These hor- 

 ses are never fit for long races. 



However good or bad the wind may be before training, it 

 always improves more or less as training proceeds. It is im- 

 proved at the same time, and by the same means, that power 

 is giver, to the muscular system. But exertion may be so regu- 

 lated that the muscular system shall acquire all the energy of 

 which it is capable, and yet the wind may be neglected and 

 defective. Short distances give power and alacrity to the 

 muscles, but long distances are necessary to improve the 

 wind. The horse must go far enough and fast enough to 

 quicken the breathing, but not at any time so far nor so fast 

 as to distress him very much. When the chest is defective, 

 or when there is a strong tendency to the formation and accu- 

 mulation of fat, the horse may need a great deal of exertion to 

 render his wind fit for his work ; and, in either case, he must 



