EXERCISE. 101 



not the grain to the exercise : he is now only being 

 put in condition, so, if he gets thin, decrease the ex- 

 ercise ; but do not increase the grain too quickly. 

 Some horses will get fat and keep in condition on 

 very little grain ; so much the better. By the time 

 his appetite and digestion can contend with ten, 

 eleven, twelve, or thirteen seers of ground grain per 

 diem, (thirteen seers of ground grain is about ten 

 pounds,) according as he may be a large or small 

 horse, and a large or small feeder, he ought to be in 

 strong healthy condition, externally and internally, 

 which is to be thus defined : when he is fine in coat, 

 and that fineness has been gained by the free use of 

 hand-rubbers and brushes, and not by warm jhools, 

 or hot stables ; when he is firm in flesh, the flesh well 

 up on the quarter, and he carries a good carcase ; 

 neither tucked up under the flank, nor let down like 

 a cow : when he is high in spirit, produced by kind- 

 ness, and regularity of feeding : when he is fresh on 

 his legs, and they are as clean and unblemished as on 

 the day that he was foaled : and when all this has 

 been brought about while he has been kept in an 

 open pendal, so that with one extra head and body 

 covering put over the single blanket, he could go on 

 a march, or be hunted, and sleep in the open mydan, 

 in the cold weather, without showing or feeling the 

 slightest bad effect from it. This is the acme of per- 

 fection of condition. 



HOW TO KEEP CONDITION. 



As continual gentle exercise is the surest way to pre- 

 serve health and prevent disease, so never omit, when 

 unable to ride yourself, to let the gora-walla mount 



