GRADUAL AND PHOGKESSIVE TRAINING. 309 



No animal, from a man to a dog, can do his 

 work unless properly trained and in good con- 

 dition. Compare a raw recruit with a disciplined 

 soldier — both possess the same bodily power, but 

 it is the drill which gives to the trained man his 

 easy carriage and firm step. So it is with the 

 horse. Take a colt up from the grass field, — what 

 is he ? Full of fat and flesh ; his muscles flabby, 

 and his carcass more fit for the butcher's shop 

 than a riding-school. Suppose you get upon his 

 back within an hour of his being first brought into 

 the stable ; you then put, in addition to his own 

 weight of body, already too great perhaps for his 

 legs, eight or ten stone more, without the least 

 preparation to carry this extra burden. Now, if 

 it requires at least two months to get a hunter 

 (which has been turned loose for the summer) 

 into tolerable condition, and it cannot be well done 

 in less time, if in so little, — is it not reasonable to 

 suppose that a raw colt will require at least the 

 same time, or longer, to be reduced to anything 

 like decent order? And as in the case of the for- 

 mer, so especially in the case of the latter, the 

 exercise must be gradual and progressive. 



To get hunters into condition, it is customary 

 to commence with ivalJcing exercise only for the 

 first month, during which one or two doses of 



