35G MONOTONY. 



exercising treatment of horses by some of the last- 

 mentioned class of public trainers. 



Horses exercising is one thing : horses doing work 

 is another. Exercise is intended to keep them in 

 health and steady, to increase the strength and elas- 

 ticity of the nmscles and sinews, to bring them into 

 proper form as to flesh and clearness of wind, to then 

 go to ivork. Provided we really do this, I conceive it 

 matters little how it is done. A trainer will say 

 there is but one way to do it, which is, of course, the 

 way he does it. I would not venture to contradict 

 this ; but as to there being but one way, I may be 

 allowed to again say ^'■je m'en douteT The one way 

 we will suppose the trainer to allude to is, so soon as 

 the horse is properly prepared to take his gallops, to 

 regularly increase those gallops as to pace and length ; 

 and unless the weather or the state of the turf may 

 compel a temporary change, the horse goes over the 

 same training ground for weeks together. 



Now what is the frequent consequence of all this 

 unvaried regularity ? The horse becomes tired of the 

 monotony of the thing, jaded by the unwearied pace 

 (for though the pace is increased, it is done so gradu- 

 ally that it appears the same to him j, and so bored by 

 his daily task, that often an ash plant is wanted to 

 make him go through it ; in fact, he becomes dis- 

 gusted with it, hates his work, and the ground he goes 

 on in doing it. What comes next ? He shuts up, or 

 goes out with the boy, or probably first the one and 

 then the other. Should he not do this, he is very 

 likely to get into a heavy dwelling goer, that will pre- 

 vent his ever being a fast one ; or degenerates into a 

 lurching slug, that neither the boy can rouse in his 

 work, nor the jockey in his race. Such, I am confi- 



