1 8 HORSES: 



know how to prevent the decline, or to build the 

 creature up anew. 



CONDITION IN HORSES. 



" Condition has much to do with the question of abil- 

 ity to undergo severe labor in inclement weather with- 

 out undue hazard," says a writer in the National Live 

 Stock Journal. " Condition is a state of the body not 

 acquired in a day, as all experienced horsemen know. 

 Without this, the trotting or the running horse is 

 well understood to possess no hardiness; in other 

 words, no power of endurance under hard pushing, 

 and at the same time a vital stamina that will enable 

 the possessor to ward off disease, though hard pressed 

 and overheated. An attempt often made by the 

 novice to put a horse in condition for hard labor by 

 suddenly increasing his feed, is inevitably followed 

 by failure. Only a system of prudent, steady feed- 

 ing, daily, vigorous exercise of the muscles being 

 practiced at the same time, will insure success. If 

 this be omitted, the animal will perspire freely, with 

 even moderate exertion. His heart will be found 

 to increase the frequency of its motions, thumping 

 against the ribs more or less violently. This can 

 easily be detected by placing the ear over the region 

 of the heart, or, in fact, over any part of the chest in 

 proximity to the heart. Suddenly feeding the horse 

 to put him in flesh fixes a tendency to this. Steady 

 muscular exertion builds against this tendency, and 

 effectually removes it, if the practice be thoroughly 

 carried out. Do not mistake by supposing that these 



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