112 



TRAINING, 



THAT is, for the turf, is the highest artificial state of 

 existence the horse has to endure ; and artificial means 

 must be resorted to before any horse can possibly be 

 brought on the course in a fit state to run a contested 

 race with a chance of winning ; but there is no neces- 

 sity to follow in the wake of admitted errors, much 

 less to practise absurdities, or to block up the animal's 

 nostrils every night at nine o'clock with that confound- 

 ed little muzzle : when the muzzle is required, let it 

 always be of the shape and size before directed. 



N ear one fourth of those that are put in training, 

 are never brought to the post, and no wonder : the 

 very stable management of many is radically bad ; 

 too much attention is paid to trifles, and the essenti- 

 als, the very life of training, neglected. Some are 

 over-physicked and over -fed, and then over-physick- 

 ed again ; the bowels, of course, get out of order ; the 

 stamina are weakened ; and the legs, as a natural con- 

 sequence, fail : others are over-clothed or over-sweat- 

 ed ; and almost all, over-stabled. Shutting the sta- 

 ble-doors close in India can only have one advantage, 

 and that is, nobody can then be aware of the non- 

 sense that goes forward within. How often does 

 training commence on the slight, and perhaps deli- 

 cately-constitutioned Arab, with two drastic doses of 

 physic ? Before two months are passed over, the 

 bowels become greatly deranged, and the legs bung- 

 ed : it is then declared, he (which ought to signify 

 the trainer) " went all wrong ;" and this wrong, or 

 rather wronged horse, has to be physicked again, and 

 laid up in bandages for a month, and perhaps blister- 



