184 ELEMENTS OF HIPPOLO&Y. 



is a matter of weeks, and his work is done in two or three minutes. 

 Yet, with all the preparation possible, after this short period of 

 work, he is more exhausted than is the draft-horse after ten 

 hours' steady pulling. To restore him to his full strength, he 

 must be cooled slowly, fed and watered with judgment, exercised 

 regularly. 



The nervous strain in this sort of work is tremendous. The 

 muscular contractions are frequent, violent, and sudden. The 

 supply of blood and the change in the muscular tissues are 

 greatly increased and the debris correspondingly increased. 

 The lungs are called on to purify the blood in greater quantities. 

 The nostrils are dilated and the windpipe straightened to in- 

 crease the volume of air entering the lungs. The inspiration of 

 all this added work must come from the nervous system, from 

 the brain and other nerve-centers. These organs must be finely 

 developed to do this extra work properly. The result is that 

 the race-horse, as a rule — and in less degree the same is true of 

 the other horses of luxury — is an excitable animal, nervous, high 

 strung, often vicious. He has little of the docility and tracta- 

 bility of the farm-horse. 



'->The polo-pony is called on to play two periods of fifteen 

 minutes each two or three times a week during the polo season; 

 yet in these few minutes of play he earns his oats as honestly as 

 the cab-horse does in his ten hours a day. 



The horse should never be pushed to the limit of his en- 

 durance. It is not necessary to do this to determine when he 

 has worked enough. The horse's breathing furnishes an ex- 

 cellent witness to his condition. While he is working easily, he 

 breathes without effort. When he begins to tire, his breathing 

 becomes more and more labored, and his heaving flanks will 

 show the effort he is making to keep up. If the horse is not 

 rested then and allowed to recuperate, other unmistakable signs 

 of exhaustion will follow. 



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