CHAPTER XI 



PREPARING PONIES FOR MEASUREMENT 



As in India certificates of height are granted to ponies 

 that need not be either in racing or even robust condition, 

 preparation for measurement has become in that country 

 an established practice. Knowing that such an ordeal 

 will reduce the height of a pony for the time being from 

 1 to 2 in., which is equivalent to 12 to 24 lbs., I need 

 hardly point out that an owner must adopt this means of 

 getting the weight off if he wishes to run his ponies on 

 equal terms with those of other men. It would be idle 

 to deny that this practice inflicts cruelty on ponies, and is 

 a potent incentive to deceit on the part of their owners. 

 It is, however, only fair to say that the present rule is a 

 great boon to owners, who in former times had to get 

 their ponies measured before every race for which they 

 ran. At the same time, its evil consequences might 

 wholly, or to a great extent, be obviated, if it were 

 enacted that a pony not holding a certificate of height 

 should be measured on the day of and before each race for 

 which he was going to start, but that his owner could 

 claim a certificate for him in any such event at the height 

 for which he was measured for it, if the measuring authori- 



