322 STABLE ECONOMY. 



the breathing. Excess at the beginning may possibly shorten 

 the time of preparation, but it is much more likely to injure 

 the lungs or the legs. 



When pulled up, the horse is walked to his stable. He 

 may stand for a minute to recover his wind. If the sweating- 

 ground be at a considerable distance, the horse is followed 

 there by the groom and his assistants, who dry him in the 

 field. The horse is placed in a sheltered spot, perhaps be- 

 side a hedge ; his clothes are removed, and he is scraped as 

 dry as possible ; fresh clothing is put on, and the horse is 

 ridden smartly home. Subsequently, the treatment is the 

 same as after sweating in the stable. If the stable be near 

 the sweating-ground, the horse had better go there at once. 

 He is in less danger of catching cold. 



I need hardly repeat that this process has a double effect , 

 It improves the condition of those parts upon which muscular 

 exertion depends, and it removes superfluous flesh. How far 

 it is proper to aim at both objects by the same process, I 

 leave to the consideration of those who have experience in 

 the practical details of training. I should think it would be 

 safer for the legs of a lusty horse to get rid of great part of 

 the superfluous flesh with as little exertion as possible ; to 

 reduce him in the first place by purging and sweating, leaving 

 no more superfluous flesh upon him than what exertion with- 

 out clothing would remove. Sometimes the trainer unites 

 both modes of sweating. After sending the horse his sweat- 

 ing distance, further perspiration is encouraged in the stable. 



The repetition of these sweats must be regulated by the 

 effect produced, and by the effect desired. While the robust 

 glutton may require a sweat once a week, or thrice a fortnight, 

 the delicate abstinent may not need more than one in five or 

 six weeks, or perhaps none at all. 



Bleeding, as an operation preparatory to work, is hardly 

 evei . '^'"essary. It is customary, however, in some hunting 

 and in coactiing-studs, upon taking the horse from grass. I be- 

 lieve it is nowhere so common as it used to be. It takes the 

 flesh oft' a horse very rapidly, but it produces great debility. 

 Perhaps the parts which are absorbed after blood-letting, may 

 not be the same parts that sweating and purging remove. It 

 may be that the loss of pure blood may be replaced by the 

 absorption of solids and fluids more necessary to vigor than 

 those solids and fluids of which purging and sweating produce 

 the removal. 



