54 CONDITION. 
regard to his looks—essentially a very minor consideration. 
So, too, if he feed badly, his work should be reduced ; whilst 
it should at all times be apportioned to suit individual 
constitutions and the state of the legs of the different 
animals. 
These things properly attended to, then, the trainer who 
knows the daily progress of his horses, can give an opinion 
worth having on their condition—but no one else can. I may 
therefore be emboldened to ask, with all the respect that 
is due to them, what can owners know of these things? They 
are little better than casual observers, and can only form 
their judgment on that most fallacious of all tests—the eye; 
and by no parity of reasoning can be said to know when, and 
when only, a horse is fit to run. It is so even with ourselves 
out of our own stable. I should assuredly find myself 
lamentably self-deceived, were I to hazard an opinion on the 
condition of a horse prepared by any one else. It would be 
the same with the most experienced trainer or the astutest 
judge of horseflesh, were the one or the other to pronounce on 
the condition of any animal they had not seen before or for 
a length of time. Just as in sickness, the qualified profes- 
sional, the veterinary surgeon, will not trust his own senses 
entirely, but will consult the attendant before prescribing ; 
or the physician will inquire his patient's state of the 
nurse, so should the owner seek his information of the 
trainer. 
But I can give instances of even more extravagant notions 
on the part of owners than those already cited. On one 
occasion a nobleman told me (and I have not the slightest 
doubt said that which he thought strictly true), as the 
reason he sent his high-priced yearlings to John Scott and 
the cheap ones to me: “He thought no trainer could train 
