50 



soft turf to be brought on to the high roads, were 

 prohibited parading before the pubhc gaze. A 

 skeleton mule overladen with baskets of bricks ; a 

 lady's palfrey with galled withers ; a mangey donkey 

 with raw hips, are all distressing sights ; but none so 

 much oifend the eye as thorough-bred wrecks turned 

 adrift by their trainers with tortuous trembling 

 timbers. The managers of race horses were formerly 

 accustomed to physic many to death. After that it 

 was not uncommon to dim the sight and quite blind 

 others from the dark and hot state of their stables. 

 The latest improvement consists in crooking their legs 

 and contracting their heels. Surely these heavenly 

 inspired trainers, with all their wonderful knowledge, 

 might learn to use boots for the feet as well as laced- 

 np stockings for the legs. The latter too often fail in 

 their intended purpose, but a few guineas annually 

 spent on the former, and kept on every horse for 

 twelve hours out of the twenty-four, would save many 

 a valuable one from those detestable stomach-ache 

 giving, wired-in heels. 



The present system of training, then, tends evi- 

 dently to the detriment, not to the improvement, of the 

 horse's understanding; but, by judicious management, 

 the most unblemished, solid, and straight legs, with 

 large frogs and wide open heels, might be combined with 



