CA.ee and management of animals 767 



blame himself for his folly, but his veterinary attendant 

 for his want of skill. 



Condition can only be obtained by degrees, it is a gradual 

 process beginning with light work, and slowly increasing 

 it to the amount required by the purpose the horse is 

 intended for. 



In the first instance it must begin with walking exercise ; 

 in fact, condition begins with it and ends with it ; it is 

 walking exercise which develops muscles, which gets rid of 

 fat, and lays the foundation for the reciprocal action of 

 heart and vessels, vessels and lungs. It is walking exercise 

 which ' conditions ' the laminEe of the feet, and which braces 

 tendons and ligaments. Under all circumstances whether 

 faster paces are being employed or no, walking exercise still 

 forms the bulk of the work that horses have to perform to 

 fit them for the hardest muscular effort that any animal is 

 capable of. 



This is a fundamental principle imperfectly appreciated ; 

 trotting and galloping only represent a portion of the 

 work performed by the horse in training, and then only 

 performed when he is absolutely fit to undergo it. Walking 

 alternated by steady short trots, is the chief means of 

 developing muscles and rendering horses fit. 



Both walking and trotting should in the first instance be 

 done without any weight on the back, the effort exerted by 

 the horse in carrying his own body-weight is at first quite 

 sufficient ; later on in the case of a saddle horse or light 

 draught horse a weight may be put up, but the whole 

 process must be gradual. 



These principles equally apply to draught horses ; the 

 heavy horse seen on London streets is gradually introduced 

 to his work. Purchased at five off, the first work is of the 

 lightest kind ; for three months three half-days a week is 

 all that is expected, and it is only gradually, as they become 

 conditioned and accustomed to hard food, that full journeys 

 are performed. 



If ' condition ' is the secret of keeping horses workably 

 sound, then the secret of condition is the gradual intro- 



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