A TEEATTSE 
 
 ON THE 
 
 PROPER CONDITION 
 
 FOE 
 
 ALL HORSES. 
 
 BY HARRY HIEOVER, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 TABLE TALK, AND STABLE TALK," "THE HUNTING FIELD," 
 " THE POCKET AND THE STUD." &C. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 T. C. NEWBY, 30, WELBECK STREET, 
 
 CAVENDISH SQUARE. 
 
 1852. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I AM quite aware that a work on Condition 
 appeared many years since, most copiously and 
 ably written by Mr. Apperly, the " Nimrod," 
 as a writer, of his day. To shew that I in no way 
 conceive I can write better on the subject, than 
 that author has done, it will be found that I 
 shall say but little on such parts of it as relate to 
 Hunters, that he has so fully entered on ; but it 
 will be remembered by those who have read the 
 work alluded to, and I beg to remark to those 
 who have not, that Mr. Apperly confined him- 
 self to treating on the Condition of Hunters 
 only, a part of Stable Management that I 
 consider is, in these days, more generally well 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 performed, than is the same management as re- 
 gards other horses, for men, keephig a stud of 
 Hunters usually have such persons engaged in 
 the care of them, as insures their being brought 
 into the field in the best possible condition ; and 
 the pace hounds now go is such, that each 
 master of a stud is quite aware that unless his 
 horses are in such high state of condition, they 
 cannot carry him where, and as, a forward rider 
 would wish to be seen by his brother sportsmen. 
 The groom is equally aware, that unless his 
 horses are in such state, his master cannot keep 
 his place in the field, which leads to no vague 
 suspicion, that under such failure of the horses, 
 the groom will not long keep his place in the 
 establishment. Thus, where emulation, vanity, 
 pleasure, and interest combine to achieve a cer- 
 tain point, it rarely happens that it is not 
 reached ; and when horses are once brought out 
 quite up to the mark in stamina and wind, good 
 grooming, liberal feeding, proper warmth, and 
 fast work, (barring accident,) usually keeps 
 them so. 
 
 But it must be remembered, or rather ob- 
 
PREFACE. VU 
 
 served, that every man does not keep a stud of 
 Hunters, or any Hunter, and it is quite as de- 
 sirable that horses for other work should be in 
 as proper condition to perform their duties as 
 should be the Hunter ; and I think I maj" fear- 
 lessly assjertjthat keeping a carriage or brougham, 
 or a couple of hacks, or all of them, does not, 
 as with the stud of Hunters, ensure their being 
 under efficient stablemen, or owning a master 
 being himself a judge of what really is the proper 
 condition for his horses to be in, and probably 
 still less of the means to be used to bring them 
 to, and keep them in such state, as will tend 
 to their doing their business well, with ease 
 to themselves, and, consequently, with satisfac- 
 tion and credit to their owners. 
 
 I therefore propose to venture my opinions on 
 the proper condition of horses for all purposes, 
 from the Race-horse to the one who draws home 
 the hay and oats for his more aristocratic la- 
 bourer, in the service and pleasure of his master. 
 
 Should my practical experience, and the opi- 
 nions emanating from it, on the Condition of 
 Horses, tend to also place their masters in aeon- 
 
Vm PREFACE. 
 
 dition to be well served, my time will have been 
 well employed ; should my opinions not be ap- 
 proved of, or, if acted upon, should they not be 
 found to answer the intended purpose, I trust 
 the worst that can happen, will be that master 
 and horse will be about in the same condition as 
 each were before this book was \\Titten. 
 
 I think it by no means improbable that some 
 persons may consider I have dilated more than 
 necessary on the subject of Race-horses ; but 
 it must be borne in mind, that each person is 
 apt to think too much is said on any subject, 
 if such subject or object does not interest his mind 
 or feelings. So some may think that what 1 have 
 said about Cart-horses is a matter that might have 
 been well omitted ; either of such critics would , 
 however, lose sight of the intent of the book, 
 which is a treatise on " the Proper Condition for 
 ALL Horses." 
 
 But i had a further motive in treating to the 
 extent I have on Race-horses, than considering 
 them as one of the different classes of the animal, 
 which is this : — the training a Race-horse, when 
 the subject is stripped of its usual mystification, 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 is really nothing more than bringing a horse to 
 the highest pitch of Condition the animal can be 
 brought to. The bringing any horse into Proper 
 Condition for any fast work, is training in a 
 modified degree; but the Condition of the Race- 
 horse is the Ne plus ultra of condition. I have 
 taken the system adopted with him as the model 
 we are to imitate in a lesser degree with all 
 others, and by shewing the time, trouble, ex- 
 pense and judgment required in, and the im- 
 portance attached to bringing him out in proper 
 condition for what we require from him, I have 
 hoped to prove that proper condition is equally 
 important to all horses, if we expect them to per- 
 form their duties in a satisfactory way. I should 
 have held it arrogant in me to expect readers 
 to be convinced of this, merely because I gave 
 it as an opinion that it is so, but by shewing that 
 men owning, and those training the most valuable 
 horses we know of, are aware that, without the 
 most perfect state of condition, such horses cannot 
 compete with inferior animals better prepared, 
 it will I hope, first, account for devoting the 
 pages I have to Racing matter ; and secondly, go 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 far to prove that the subject of this book is one 
 of the highest importance, though I may not per- 
 haps have brought it out in as " proper condi- 
 tion" as I could have wished. 
 
REMARKS ON THE PLATES. 
 
 It may be very properly remarked, that any pictorial 
 illustration of any subject or object should explain 
 itself. I venture a hope that the two sketches I 
 made for this book may do this, if looked at by those 
 initiated in the extraordinary diiFerence that exists, 
 in point of appearance, by the same animal, in two 
 opposite states of condition ; but those little conver- 
 sant with such matters (and it is chiefly, if not 
 wholly, for such the book is written) may not possibly 
 be able to detect how and where this arises without 
 some little explanation. I judge by analogy. 
 
 Little as I know of nautical matters, I really do 
 know a schooner-rigged vessel from a cutter ; but if 
 two sketches were shown me of two schooners, or two 
 cutters — the one stylishly rigged, the other rigged in 
 
XU ILEMAE.KS OIK THE PLATES. 
 
 a slovenly maimer — I might look till doomsday before 
 I could detect the merits or demerits of each : hence 
 my motive for explaining the two engravings. 
 
 " Fit to show" and " Fit to go." " Yes," some 
 reader may say, *' but they are different horses." 
 '' Excuse me," I should reply, '' the horses are the 
 same : there is the same anatomical proportions ; but 
 in the first, all is hid by a mass of useless fat. There 
 is the same fine long wither and oblique shoulder, 
 but both are lost by being run into a neck loaded 
 with flesh. Of muscle there is no indication ; how 
 should there be, when the shape of each muscle is 
 buried under a load of flesh ? Some may think the 
 first shows more spirit than the other quiet-looking 
 animal : he does, so far as dancing about in the false 
 spirit of idleness, and from having had a few ''pri- 
 vate shows," when only the dealer and his men 
 were present, who, knowing the great majority of 
 their customers are not judges of horses, very wisely 
 gives his horses a few private hints as to their 
 manners, when shown out for sale. To use a tech- 
 nical term, " what a flag he carries :" he does, 
 
EEMAEKS O'S THE PLATES. XI] 1 
 
 for hidden reasons, the effect of which any ciistomer 
 may try in any way he pleases. To put a horse in 
 such state to anything in the shape of exertion, 
 would probably be death to him. 
 
 As regards appearance, he is a fine-shaped horse 
 disguised ; in fact, merely looks a good sort of York- 
 shire Harness-horse. But let us now turn to Sketch 
 Xo. 2. 
 
 Here we have the same horse, but scarcely looking 
 the same animal: even his colour (though the en- 
 graving cannot show that) is altered by Condition. 
 We may, by his appearance, suppose him to have 
 been eighteen months under the management of a 
 superior stud groom, and in the middle of his first 
 season of regular hunting. Here we see what was 
 beneath the mass of flesh under which he laboured 
 when a four or five years' old, fresh from the breeder. 
 Here his neck is shown finely set on ; the long sweep 
 of his wither is before us, his shoulders, before per- 
 fectly beefiy, now exhibit obliquity in shape, and be- 
 speak liberty of action ; his long and muscular hind 
 quarters show he is of aristocratic family ; his quan- 
 
XiV fiEMAUKS ON THE PLATES. 
 
 turn of flesh is just what would enable him to keep 
 his pace in a fast country, even were it with ^' the 
 'Squire's Flying Ladies," of never-dying memory. 
 He does not show foolish and mere idle display of 
 false fire, but there is determination in his eye and 
 countenance : he looks willing, and, as far as my 
 judgment serves me, he looks also '' Tit to go." 
 
COIS^TEI^TS. 
 
 ITiTTEODTJCTION 1 
 
 THE EACE-HOESE ...... 6 
 
 THE HITNTEE ...... 66 
 
 THE ladies' HOESE . . . . . 116 
 
 THE HACK ....... 124 
 
 THE CAEEIAGE-HOESE . . . • 126 
 
 THE CAET-HOESE 188 
 
ON THE 
 
 PROPER CONDITION 
 
 FOE 
 
 ALL HORSES. 
 
 Theee was a time when the term condition would- 
 have been as mystic as any term used in the incan- 
 tations of those witches, necromancers, or wise people 
 that the greatest of warriors did not feel it beneath 
 their dignity to consult, and even suffered their au- 
 guries to elate or depress the hope of victory. The 
 Egyptians, those early patrons of the turf, though 
 they certainly did in some measure prepare their 
 coursers for the trysting field, knew little more of 
 condition than they did of steam transit : and I sus- 
 pect (to jump over centuries) Sir Eoger de Coverly, 
 
2 PE01>EE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 thougli he hunted, knew little more of condition than 
 did those who trusted more to the sharpness of the 
 spiked balls hung to their racers' sides than they did 
 to his fitness for the course he was destined to con- 
 tend on. It is now among sportsmen perfectly un- 
 derstood, yet there are many even now to whom the 
 term would be as little definite as I presume it would 
 have been to the worthy knight. To such then I 
 will endeavour to render it at once explicit. *' Con- 
 dition" means perfect fitness in health, strength, 
 wind and activity for the task the animal is called 
 upon to perform ; the necessary amount of each or 
 all combined depending on the nature of the feat to 
 be performed. This, I trust, suffices to explain to 
 the least initiated what is meant by the technical 
 term condition. 
 
 "Whatever may be said, sung, or written, on any 
 subject, there is always to be found, as is said in the 
 play of The Good-natured Man, " some d good- 
 natured friend" to cavil at it, contradict it, and 
 sometimes fight one inch by inch, even after convic- 
 tion returning to the charge with a pertinacity worthy 
 
PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 3 
 
 a better cause. Yet I do not think I shall be con- 
 tradicted in this premise ; namely, that before a horse 
 can be got into condition he must be more or less 
 broke, and before he can be broken he must be abso- 
 lutely bred. This I believe no one will deny ; if any 
 one could be found to do so, it would be a witness I 
 once saw examined in Ireland. The identity and 
 presence of a culprit was wished to be proved. Tlio 
 witness was asked — 
 
 Q. You were with Mick Doolan, at the Flying 
 Horse, on Saturday, you know ? 
 
 W. Devil a know I knows your honer. 
 
 Q. Whj you saw him there ? 
 
 W. I did nat your honer. 
 
 Q. Why he stood at the table before your eyes ? 
 
 "W. May be so your honer. 
 
 Q. Then how can you say you did not see him ? 
 take care what you say. 
 
 W, Many thanks your worship, I'll doJthat same. 
 
 Q. Then how can you swear you did not see a 
 man standing before you ? 
 
 W. Plase yere honer its but one eye I have at all, 
 
 b2 
 
4 PKOPEE CONDITIOK FOE ALL H.OESES. 
 
 and I'm 'flicted with a tear in the other, so at times 
 I can't see a man from a milestone. 
 
 Q. But you heard Tim Sullivan talking to Doplan 
 and calluig him by name ? 
 
 "W. And wat if I did? sure, there's plenty of 
 Doolans in Ireland, yer honer. I didn't see the man, 
 and I can't swear to him ; and the more you ask me, 
 the more I won't. 
 
 Q. You may stand down ! 
 
 "W. Long life to yer honer ! 
 
 I will suppose, however — ^nay, conclude — that I 
 have not so imperturbable a person ia my reader as 
 the witness just mentioned, and that he admits a 
 horse must be bred and broke before he can be got 
 into condition. I will first allude to the Breeding. 
 On this subject I may perhaps, at some future time, 
 venture to write, shewing the few cases in which it 
 may be turned to profitable account, and the number- 
 less ones in .which it must lead to certain loss. 
 
 I quite concur in the opinion of Rousseau, that 
 education has really been going on often before we 
 could conceive it had commenced, and cannot be 
 
PROPER CONDITION FOE ALL HORSES. 5 
 
 begun too early. I hold the same opinion as regards 
 horses, and, indeed, ail dumb animals intended for 
 domestic purposes. I hold it equally certain, that 
 proper breeding is quite necessary to produce, or 
 rather to enable us to produce, proper condition in 
 the horse, for the particular purpose for which he is 
 intended. It is quite true, a horse may be impro- 
 perly bred fbr a particular purpose in two ways : he 
 may be too highly or too coarsely bred for such pur- 
 poses. It would perhaps be more to the point, if, 
 instead of saying a horse is improperly bred for a 
 given purpose, I say he is applied to one for which 
 his breeding does not qualify him. Where this is 
 the case, the error most frequently arises from the 
 animal being put to a description of work for which 
 he is not sufficiently well bred. "Where this is the 
 case, the pace wiU distress him ; and although fast 
 work not only promotes, but is absolutely necessary, 
 to fine condition, such condition can never be arrived 
 at by making the exercise or work of the animal 
 amount to distress. Occasional distress every horse 
 may undergo ; but the recurrence of such prostration 
 
6 PKOPEE CONDITION FOB ALL HOESES. 
 
 of animal vigour must not be frequent, otherwise 
 condition would retrograde just as much, and much 
 more seriously, than it would by the want of sufficient 
 exercise and exertion to keep it up. "We will now 
 attend to 
 
 THE EACE-HOESE. 
 
 I have been many times asked, " How long it 
 generally takes to train a Eace-horse ?" This, to the 
 uninitiated, may appear a very simple question, and 
 to be easily answered. That the query is a plain and 
 simple one, is quite certain ; yet it is one that it is 
 absolutely impossible to answer in a satisfactory way. 
 Before even a qualified reply could be made, we will 
 just see how many questions we must put to the 
 querist. He asks the question of the time it requires 
 to train a Eace-horse ? I could, or perhaps should, 
 say, What Eace-horse? My life on it, the person 
 who would ask such a question would at once say, 
 " Oh, any Eace-horse." Neither I nor any man could 
 more answer such a question than could a drawing- 
 master answer how long it would take him to teach a 
 pupil he knew nothing of, to di'aw in a masterly 
 
THE EACE-HOESE. 7 
 
 manner. I did once hear a Frencliman make the 
 only reply that could be made to such a question, in 
 reference to a great stupid-looking lump of humanity 
 ** C^est selon le talent de monsieur.''^ Now, the train- 
 ing of a Race-horse, as respects time, does not rest on 
 any circumstance so easily defined, but on a combina- 
 tion of circumstances ; and before any reply to such a 
 question as I have mentioned could be made, it would 
 be quite necessary to ask the following leading 
 ones : — What is his age ? Has he been running ? 
 What is his present condition? Is he a strong or 
 delicate constitutioned horse ? Are his legs and feet 
 sound ? What sort of temper is he ? If he has run, 
 what is his best distance ? Having got these ques- 
 tions answered, we have now to, as it were, handicap 
 his pretensions, qualifications, and peculiarities, and 
 consider how far each may promote or retard his 
 training on, and how far each may counteract the 
 effects of the other in our attempts to bring him out 
 in his best form, or the best that he can be brought 
 up to ; for there are certain circumstances and pecu- 
 liarities in some Eace-horses that prevent that parti- 
 
8 PBOPEE CONDITION FOB ALL HOESES. 
 
 cular horse ever being brought into the best state 
 of condition a Eace-horse can be at. And this holds 
 good more with horses that have been running, than 
 with such as have not ; for the latter usually come 
 into the trainer's hands comparatively in their natural 
 state ; so it is only (in ordinary cases) some little 
 natural imperfections of temper and temperament he 
 has to contend with, and these judicious and proper 
 treatment will eradicate, or, at the least, palliate ; for 
 we win not suppose any man insane enough to put a 
 colt in training, who evidently shows natural imper- 
 fections of such character as render it impossible, or, 
 indeed, improbable, that he will make a Race-horse. 
 
 I certainly have seen colts sent to a trainer, that I 
 fearlessly pronounced never would or could stand the 
 ordeal of training, and others that reaUy shewed phy- 
 sical reasons or symptoms that would prevent their 
 being worth the trouble if tiiey did. Of course the 
 owners did not think so, and I need scarcely say such 
 owners knew little or nothing of Race-horses. 
 
 As I am only writing on condition, and not on 
 training y I shall only mention some of the circum- 
 
THE KACE-HOESE. 9 
 
 stances about a Race-horse, that may render it ex- 
 tremely difficult, if not impossible, to bring biTn into 
 proper condition to come to the post. How he may 
 run afterwards, is quite another affair. One thing is 
 quite certain — he cannot run with hope of success, 
 imless he is in condition. Of course hundreds have 
 little chance of doing so, though in point of condition 
 they may be perfection itself. 
 
 If we could collect half-a-dozen two years' old colts, 
 each possessing the same temper, constitution, and 
 soundness, and each in precisely the same condition, 
 it is more than probable' (barring unlooked-for con- 
 tingencies) they could all be brought out the same 
 week, each fit to run ; but it is rare to find half-a- 
 dozen colts, fillies, horses, or mares, in the same 
 stable, each possessing the same attributes as regards 
 the facility, or difficulty, of bringing them out fit to 
 run. So if the whole six were put into a trainer's 
 hands at a given time, and were each required to be 
 brought out to run in the same meeting, do what he 
 might, no doubt ^ome would be in far better form than 
 others ; give him (that is the trainer) from a week to 
 
10 PEOPEfi CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 a month's latitude, as to the time his colts would be 
 wanted ; probably, he would bring them all out as fit 
 to run as each could be made ; but confine him to a 
 given period, no human ingenuity could bring out 
 half-a-dozen colts, varying in their attributes, in 
 equally good form and condition at one and the same 
 period, if put into his hands at the same time. 
 
 I must, I find, here, not to be misunderstood, make 
 another observation, which is this : Though I am quite 
 clear, that if half-a-dozen colts were put into a 
 trainer's hands, in, we will say, the first week in 
 February, he could not bring them all out in the 
 middle of April, equally fit to run ; let him have 
 these colts six months in his hands, he would proba- 
 bly, under such circumstances, bring them all out in 
 as good condition as they could each be brought to ; 
 but if we confine his exercising and working half-a- 
 dozen colts, to as short a period as we can expect him 
 to bring out those causing little trouble, or difficulty, 
 such as are both troublesome and difficult to train, 
 must in some way suffer in condition, if wanted to 
 run at the same time as the others. 
 
THE EACE-HORSE- 11 
 
 Not to be thouglit to shrink from answering the 
 question, of the length of time it takes to train a 
 horse to run, I will take a two years' old ; for old horses, 
 that is, horses that have been running, vary so much 
 in many particulars, that we might ring the changes 
 on the difficulty, or its reverse of bringing them 
 into condition " ad infinitum^ 
 
 Supposing then a two years' old to have been always 
 well and judiciously fed, to have been broke, taught 
 as far as a Racing-colt wants teaching, namely, to 
 go well, quietly, and collectedly, to lead and follow 
 others in exercise, to go by the side of another colt 
 without shewing vice, been walked on a public road, 
 and through a town, has gone on a race-course, and 
 in a crowd, will do all this quietly, and has had such 
 physic as his constitution may require, and circum- 
 stances, such as a frost impeding his exercise, might 
 render necessary : — I should say a trainer could bring 
 out a two years' old, so circumstanced, in perfect condi- 
 tion to run such lengths as two years' old go, in two 
 months from the time he was put into his hands 
 
 I will now suppose a two years' old to be fresh from 
 
12 PEOPEK COin)ITION POE ALL HOESES. 
 
 his paddock, and to have learned nothing further than 
 to suffer himself to he handled, and to lead with some 
 difficulty from his awkwardness in a cavesson. I have 
 said the other colt would require two months to be got 
 fit to run. I will now give my ideas as to the time the 
 last-mentioned will require to be brought to the same 
 state ; I should say five or six times as long ; namely, 
 quite or nearly twelve months ; but the time can in 
 no way be as definitely given as with the last ; and 
 for this reason, we know what the first is when put 
 into the trainer's hands ; we can only conjecture from 
 what we have seen of the latter, what he may become . 
 when put in situations, and under restraint to which 
 he has been totally unaccustomed. They say that a 
 certain black gentleman, though never represented as 
 amiable, " is good-tempered when he is pleased ;" it 
 may turn out so with a colt, but he may become a 
 great reprobate, and indeed savage, when he finds he 
 has other wills to obey than his own. I have seen, or 
 fancied to have seen, something bordering on a little 
 restlessness, (we will call it,) evinced by very fair 
 creatures when bending to the wishes of others; 
 
THE EACE-HOESE. 13 
 
 though, while obeying their own, their smiles were 
 " mild as moonbeams," soft and radiant as those of 
 the sun, and more beautiful than either ; we may well 
 therefore take into the category of contingencies way- 
 wardness, nay, absolute obstinacy, in a colt, while 
 learning that most irksome of all lessons, obedience 
 to others. 
 
 If the reader has been in as many paddocks as I 
 have, and seen as various (and many of them extra- 
 ordinary) modes of treating racing stock as I have 
 Been exhibited, he wiU not be surprised, if I say the 
 mode of commencing the bringing the colt into con- 
 dition, must be influenced by the way in which he 
 has been previously treated. I have seen mares and 
 foals, colts and fillies, mere walking skeletons from 
 starvation. I have seen others nearly so from want 
 of shelter, and running about the whole day to avoid 
 the flies ; their feet at the same time battered to pieces 
 by stamping on the hard ground, driven half mad by 
 such pests to animals ; and I have seen this in places 
 belonging to persons from whom we might expect 
 better things. I have seen others fat enough and to 
 
14 PROPER CONDITION FOR ALL HORSES. 
 
 spare, but rendered so by nearly the same means we 
 should take to bring a bullock to the same state of 
 obesity ; but oats, the true foundation for a stamina, 
 likely to stand training and racing, were held as useless ; 
 while others, of course, are put into the trainers' hands, 
 high in flesh, but that firm and good — in short, some- 
 thing to work upon. 
 
 It will be easily conceived, even'by those the least 
 conversant with such matters, that the proceedings 
 with these colts in such different states, must differ 
 as widely as did their former treatment. It is quite 
 probable that among the starved, and particularly the 
 tormented lot, some of them will be found with their 
 feet in so broken and worn a state, that a shoe cannot, 
 or scarcely can, be nailed on them ; this we will say 
 may not matter much, for the first step with them, 
 towards gettiog them into condition, must be giving 
 them something to get into condition upon ; namely, 
 proper feeding, quiet, and the absence of annoyance ; 
 and with the regularly starved ones, they must be 
 brought up to proper feeding by degrees, or we shall 
 get knots and eruption on the skin, inflamed eyes. 
 
TKE RACE-HOESE. 15 
 
 cracked heels, and all those inflammatory ills that 
 horse " is heir to." It will take months to bring 
 round a colt, so impoverished from want of proper 
 nutriment to a state in which we can begin to do 
 anything with him tending to condition, further than 
 getting muscle on his bones. A habit become spare 
 from strong exercise or work, if not overworked, 
 wiU soon fill up ; for the stamina is still good ; but 
 an impoverished constitution must be nursed ere we 
 can venture to make any call on it for exertion. 
 
 The colt loaded with flesh, produced by good food, 
 in improper quantity, will take a considerable time 
 before any steps can be taken with him, in the way 
 of training from another cause ; he must of course be 
 broke before he can be trained, and in his fattened 
 state ; even this must be set about with great caution, 
 for any thing like exertion would probably produce 
 on him the same effects as liberal feeding would on 
 the starved one ; namely, inflammatory symptoms 
 (or reahties) somewhere. To bring this gentleman to 
 anything like gentlemanly form, only walking exer- 
 cise can at first be had recourse to ; his flesh is, in 
 
16 PEOPEB CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 short, little better than blubber ; if that should be got 
 off too suddenly, he would become weak, and, in faxjt, 
 the means used to get it off quickly would be dan- 
 gerous in the extreme ; for while we are gradually 
 getting off the load of flesh, under which the colt 
 laboured, it is necessary, by proper feeding, to so 
 harden what remains on him as to bring it to whole- 
 some and firm muscle, instead of useless incumbrance ; 
 this done, we may venture to lunge the colt, accustom 
 him to a saddle and girths, and when reconciled to 
 this, he has to be backed, a ceremony to be most 
 carefally put in practice, — for there are two things to 
 be guarded against with most scrupulous care, first, 
 not to provoke him to resist, and secondly, not to let 
 him get the mastery, if he does ; for should tho latter 
 occur, it is ten to one he will always try the same 
 manoeuvre in future. 
 
 We will suppose him to carry quietly : he must now 
 learn to go ; that is, he must learn to go with that 
 uniform, cool and collected stride that is to carry him 
 through his future exercise and work. He has now 
 begun that sort of exercise, tending towards condi- 
 
THE EACE-HOESE. 17 
 
 tion ; in the doing this he will, more or less, in ac- 
 cordance with his temper and docility, shew the effect 
 it has on him ; for, though his task and exertions 
 must be comparatively very slight, still, should his 
 temper be irritable, the restraint he is now under 
 will take greater effect on his habit than such trifling 
 exertion might lead us to expect ; and here a judici- 
 ous eye, calculating head, and much experience, is 
 wanting so to lessen, or go on, with the present treat- 
 ment, as shall produce the desired end, without 
 causing the colt to lose condition. We will conclude 
 we have such attributes in him who has the charge 
 of the colt's breaking and tuition, and that he has 
 brought him to go up his gallop kindly, without be- 
 coming sluggish, or tricky, or, what is even worse, 
 alarmed at what he is called on to perform. 
 
 At so tender an age, continued exertion, light though 
 it might be, would very probably weary a colt — ^he 
 would in fact, if it was continued, become jaded and 
 dispirited ; nay, possibly might get sore on his shins. 
 It would therefore be judicious to give a few weeks' 
 respite from such daily task ; and as such usually takes 
 
18 PROPER CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 place at, or towards the end of the year, the state of the 
 ■weather might also render such indulgence conve- 
 nient as well as judicious, and now a gentle dose 
 of physic would counteract the too su(^den effects of 
 a change from exercise to rest. Here, in a large 
 loose box, we will for the present leave him, bearing 
 in mind that though we well know idleness will 
 produce the again throwing up ftesh, such effect 
 must not be kept down by low feeding ; for though 
 we shall be certain to see him come out again some- 
 what high, he will be in a far different state from 
 that in which he first came into our hands — his 
 flesh will be good, and on going to work again we 
 may take more liberty with him by far than could 
 have been ventui^ed on in his original state; but, 
 though the colt may be, as it were, laid by for a time, 
 it is only exertion ceases, for a certain degree of con- 
 dition must be kept up during the whole time of his 
 comparative idleness.; and this it wiU be by the exer- 
 cise given him in order to keep him within the 
 bounds of some restraint, and that he may not become 
 again wild and forget the lessons he has learnt. 
 
THE ILiCE-HOESE. 19 
 
 I stated it would take ten or twelve months in a 
 usual way, to bring a colt feesh from his paddock in 
 condition to run, and I think it will not be found I have 
 far over-rated the time required ; for if he is fat, as 
 I have supposed one to be, it is some time before we 
 can venture to even begin his lessons, from the dangei 
 exertion would produce ; and if he be impoverished 
 and low in flesh, it will require quite as long a time 
 to bring him up to a state that wiU enable him to 
 bear it. If a colt is just in the state he ought to be 
 when put into a trainer's hands, the weeks (for weeks 
 it wiU take) that are required to bring others into 
 such state will, of course, be saved ; that is, where 
 he is in that kind of colt's condition that admits of his 
 immediately commencing his exercise. 
 
 Let us suppose the colt to come to the training 
 stables in the month of April, or any month it may 
 suit the convenience or pleasure of his owner to send 
 him there, for it will make little difference as to the 
 time he wiU require to be broke, taught, and trained, 
 but as a given date we will say April. If in an unfit 
 state to commence exercise,, that is, exertion, we give 
 
20 PROPER CONDITION FOR AXL HORSES. 
 
 him from three to six weeks to get into such state of 
 flesh and stamina as we want for present purposes ; 
 say he- commences being lunged early in May, by the 
 end of the month he has improved in form, strength, 
 and wind, from his exercise in the lunge has learned 
 to carry a saddle, bear moderate tight girting, knows 
 the feel of a bit in his mouth, and has learned that 
 he must yield his head to the tension (slight as it 
 should be) of the reins, has felt the pressure of the 
 dumb-jockey or German rider (whichever persons may 
 please to call it) on the flaps of the . saddle, which 
 prepares him for the somewhat similar pressure of a 
 living rider's knees and thighs ; we suppose him 
 backed, and after being for some days carefully led, 
 is then ridden under the control of the rider only. 
 He follows at a distance the other more advanced 
 colts and horses in training, till he is docile, and fol- 
 lows, stays behind, or leaves them, as the rider de- 
 sires. During this time he has been ridden by the 
 breaker, or head lad, if he is used to such tuition ; he 
 has now to be mounted by a steady riding boy, and 
 having had a few gentle canters, both by himself and 
 
THE EACE-HOESE. 21 
 
 led by a steady hack, he joins the string, and his 
 training may be said to have commenced, but not his 
 actual training to run, but his training to bring him 
 into sufficient condition to try ; for imless he is to a 
 certain extent really in condition, trying him would 
 be useless, for we cannot tell what may be the powers 
 or speed of a colt or horse, unless he is in sufficient con- 
 dition to be able to bring both of these attributes out. 
 All this brings us to (say) August ; so soon as the colt's 
 condition is suited for it, he is tried with other two 
 years' old, all, of course, more or less in equally pro- 
 per condition for the spin they are to get, and pretty 
 good that condition should be, for till such trial of 
 colts of the same age together, which may prove supe- 
 rior is but speculative, and the best judge may be 
 deceived by the style of a colt's going at exercise, and 
 even work ; for when really extended and put to the 
 real test,' a great pulling off or exhibition of unex- 
 pected capability frequently surprises master, trainer 
 and jockey, in the important testing of such. 
 
 I have said the condition of such colts must be 
 good, to enable us to truly judge of their pretensions. 
 
22 PEOPER CONDITION FOB AIL HOESES. 
 
 I^ow some persons might say, (in fact I have had 
 such said to me), " Why take so much time and 
 trouble to bring colts to almost racing condition, 
 merely for a trial of speed ? for be the condition ever 
 so moderate, if the condition of all was alike, they 
 would each be on a par, and be tried under equal ad- 
 vantage and disadvantage." Such idea may at first 
 seem plausible enough, and the suggested plan of 
 saving time feasible enough, but both would quite 
 deceive us if put into practice. 
 
 Even the individual who made such suggestion to 
 ^e could but know, that when a Kace-horse starts, he 
 usually is, or is supposed to be, in as good form, that 
 is, is in as good condition to run as he can be brought 
 up to ; and any man who has trained Race-horses, 
 knows in what an extraordinary way some horses 
 improve in training when compared with others. If, 
 therefore, colts were tried each in (we will say) half 
 condition, the one that would improve but little by 
 better training, would be tried under such great ad- 
 vantage over the one that would much improve by 
 proper training, that we should probably be led into 
 
TKE EACE-JEOESE. 23 
 
 estimation of the relative pretensions of the two that 
 would be the very reverse of a correct one ; we should 
 probably form favourable opinions of one that would 
 never be fit to run for a man's hat, and throw aside 
 the other that would train into a Kace-horse. If it 
 were possible to ascertain that in a short time we had 
 brought two colts each to exactly half his powers, 
 and each by further training would precisely improve 
 the other half, my friend's suggestion might be taken, 
 and we might save ourselves the trouble of training 
 our colts to their greatest perfection, for in such cas6, 
 when perfect, the result would be the same as when 
 half so ; but as this cannot be done, nothing but 
 proper condition can enable us to judge of colts in 
 their trial. 
 
 It is quite certain that one colt can be made fit in 
 less time than another, perhaps in half the time ; fre- 
 quently the difi'erence required is still greater. A 
 light delicate colt is usually naturally particularly 
 clear in his wind, and has generally no more, often 
 less, flesh on him than we wish him to have. Now, 
 for short distances, supposing a colt to be a good goer 
 
24 PROPER COXDITIOX FOP, ALL HORSES. 
 
 by nature, if lie is clear in his wind, and has no super- 
 fluous flesh or fat in him, or on him, he is pretty near, 
 or perhaps quite, as fit to run as all the training in the 
 world could make him ; in fact, if in such state, no 
 matter how little might have been done with him, 
 with more work he would very probably train off, 
 that is, go back in condition ; thus in trying colts, 
 one, after his ordinary exercise, may only require a 
 very few brushing gallops, and one sweat, whereas 
 another will require frequent, and strong work, and 
 sundry sweats to even bring him fit to try. This 
 matters not as regards two colts, though, by the bye, 
 it often matters a good deal, as to the legs of the 
 strong one ; but a horse or colt can be no better than 
 quite fit fl)r what he has to perform, be that brought 
 about by what means or time it may ; and of this 
 there can be no doubt, that in point of condition, 
 whether to try, or race, or, indeed, any thing else, fit 
 he must be ; if we wish him to do it to advantage. 
 
 There is, however, a further necessity for a colt, 
 being in something like racing condition, when 
 brought out to trial. We try iliree, four, or six two 
 
THE EACE-HOESE. 25 
 
 years* old together, by this we of course find out their 
 different merits, as two years' old ; and I make this re- 
 servation, because one colt may possibly shew superior 
 at the time, yet another may, when grown a year 
 older, prove a better Eace-horse than the one that beat 
 him in a year old trial, particularly if the former be 
 an overgrown one ; but to return to the trial on their 
 merits at the age they are. One is most probably very 
 superior to the rest, this in no way proves hiTn any 
 thing superior, except it be with those he was tried 
 with, for they might be a very bad lot ; so beating them 
 proves nothing but that he was better than worse ; 
 in feet, as I have sometimes said of some I have had 
 the pleasure of owning, ^' He is a pretty good one 
 among bad ones." It will be necessary therefore to 
 form some sure estimate of the quality of the lot, and 
 this is done by .trying the best of that lot with some- 
 thing whose pretensions we can correctly measure ; 
 therefore, either at the first trial with the lot, or in 
 a separate one afterwards, we tiy the winning colt 
 with some one we know can go. This must necessarily 
 be a horse or colt, that has been running ; he will of 
 
26 PKOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOilSES. 
 
 course be in training, in fact in work, and pretty 
 nearly fit to race ; so unless the condition of the colt 
 to be tried is very close on that of the trial-horse, 
 we should be doing him injustice, in condemning him 
 if beaten off in his second trial, and should not give 
 him sufficient credit, if he made a good fight of it, 
 though beaten. Thus, condition is, in figurative lan- 
 guage, the key stone to the superstructure in which 
 dwell all our hopes of pleasure, credit, and merit in 
 our stable. 
 
 All this qualifying for breaking, teaching, training, 
 and trying a colt, has brought us to near the close of 
 the year ; and to recover the colt from the excitement 
 and exertion he has undergone, he has, as I before 
 said, been put by for six weeks, this brings us to the 
 middle of January. "We have now to get him through 
 his physic, which may be one, two, or three doses if 
 required ; we have to reduce the useless flesh he has 
 thrown up. This will require stronger exercise than 
 was wanted, or even safe to give him, to get off the 
 soft fat he formerly owned, still it must not be hurried, 
 and long walking must be resorted to for a short time, 
 
TnE EACE-HOESE. 27 
 
 and then slow gallops for short distances, either alone, 
 or with others, beginning the novitiate he has gone 
 through. This bring us to the beginning or middle 
 of February ; our colt is wanted to run rather early 
 in April, and with the treatment and preparation he 
 has had, supposing his constitution to be of an ordi- 
 nary kind, there is quite time enough for as much 
 strong exercise, and as many sweats, as any two years' 
 old should go through. By the last week in March, 
 our colt is fit to take, at any time, the last three or 
 four brushing gaUops, and the last sweat, to prepare 
 him for any day that he may be called on to start. 
 
 It will be seen that we have wasted no time, for 
 that judiciously given to ease the colt at the end of 
 the year was not waste, it was eventually forwarding 
 him, by putting him in spirits, and vigour, to resume 
 his* labours ; whereas, had we kept unremittingly at 
 him, his legs would probably have suffered, his temper 
 would have possibly suffered, he would have become 
 bored with his work, and probably more or less 
 cunning, and lurching, when at it; a jade when 
 called on, and fractious or savage when not; aU 
 
28 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 very nrncli increasing the difficulty of bringing a 
 horse out in temper, inclination, and condition to win, 
 for the benefit of his owner, and to the credit of his 
 trainer. 
 
 Persons not acquainted with the great difficulty 
 there is in bringing a Race-horse into the highest pos- 
 sible state of condition, might not think it a matter 
 of much consequence what might be the temper of a 
 Race-horse. If he was a good one, I grant that if he 
 does run, and wins, his temper may not be of much 
 importance to his master, be it good or bad. But 
 there are some tempers that make it almost a misfor- 
 tune for a trainer to have the horse possessing it in 
 his stable ; the inference would probably be, that I 
 aUude to the savage, that it is dangerous to approach. 
 Rut I do not mean him, bad as he is, there is one a 
 still greater annoyance ; the savage will rarely attempt 
 to hurt the boy who looks after him, and the trainer 
 knows well how or when to approach him, so as not 
 to be injured by such a reprobate. Such a horse may 
 do his work kindly enough while at it, and may give 
 his race kindly ,' if so, as he is kept (where all ill- 
 
 « 
 
THE EACE-HOESE. 29 
 
 tempered persons should be kept) by himself, he 
 may bite the walls or himself (and some mil do the 
 latter, if not prevented) at his own pleasure. But the 
 pest is an irritable unhappy wretch, a frightened devil, 
 that is alarmed at every thing ; he always appears 
 alarmed, ia his stable, or box, and is really alarmed 
 at his work unless great caution is used with him ; 
 all sorts of devices and manoeuvres are necessary to 
 get a little work into such a horse, without rousing 
 his apprehension, which, if roused, it will take per- 
 haps a week to pacify ; probably, for that time, it may 
 become necessary to stop his work altogether, and to 
 send him, as if he was a leper, to walk alone ; he is 
 also off his feed for the veriest trifle that may occur. 
 
 I had one of this sort, of course a delicate feeder 
 at all times. One day, after seeing her corn given her, 
 I saw she took no notice of it, but stared about her, 
 looking in all directions. I looked, but saw nothing. 
 I listened, and then heard a bumblebee buzzing about. 
 I caught it, the mare snorting all the time ; and I left 
 her looking as alarmed as if a Bengal tiger had paid 
 her a visit. I went to her again in an hour : not an 
 
30 PROPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 oat had she touched ; and it was only by sending her 
 out a two hours' walk, I brought her to her senses 
 and appetite. A pleasant animal to train ; if my 
 reader really thinks so, in all sincerity and good-na- 
 ture, I wish him her fellow. 
 
 The only redeeming circumstance in the trainer's 
 favour, when having such horses to deal with, is that 
 they usually require but little work, for their fidgety 
 tempers keep them ever on the watch, and on being 
 dressed, or even being saddled, their antics is exercise 
 to them without even leaving their stable. 
 
 I will here mention a short anecdote, which shows 
 how dififerently men estimate different things, and 
 particularly such as are likely to promote their plea- 
 sure or interest. 
 
 A friend of mine, who had no money to spare, 
 thought he should like a little taste of racing. God 
 help his innocency, if he hoped by that to ^'put 
 money in his purse ;" so knowing I estimated the 
 irritable mai'e at a very low price, wished to pur- 
 chase her. "If," said I, " you have very little mo- 
 ney, I wiU tell you how to a certainty to make it 
 
tjlTj race-horse. 31 
 
 less ; if you have a great deal, how to make it a very 
 little. Run an opposition coach, or buy a bad Race- 
 horse ; the dice-box won't do, for it is possible you 
 may win by that, but you certainly will not by the 
 others ; but," said I, ** as to the mare, she has three 
 great draw-backs, — she is very troublesome to dress." 
 *' I have a boy that won't mind that." " Good. She is 
 uncommonly difficult to train." ''I have plenty of 
 time, so that will be an amusement to me." " Good 
 again; but she is good for nothing when she is 
 trained." " If that was the case, you would not have 
 told me of it." ''I have a great mind to sell her to 
 you for your ingratitude," said I ; but I did not, I 
 sold her to one I cared less about. 
 
 iN'ow flighty Race-horses, and flighty ladies, are 
 very well in the hands of other people ; when so ap- 
 propriated, I hold the latter as neither more or less, 
 than divinities, but they are both somewhat ticklish 
 addenda to our own establishments. I have had 
 some practical experience of the vagaries of the for- 
 mer, I have heard something of those of the latter. 
 Call them vagaries if you will, call the latter authors 
 
32 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 of them by any term that still indicates fascination and 
 beauty, unless you are more or less than man, you 
 must still allow that — 
 
 " Dear, sweet little creatures, we can't do without them — 
 They're all that is dear and seducing to man." 
 
 ^^ Mais revenom a nos moutons,''^ that is, revenons to the 
 very common place subject I have in hand, namely, 
 " the Proper Condition for all Horses." 
 
 I have omitted the condition necessary for, and 
 the means by which it is to be produced in the year- 
 ling as a Racer ; I have done so for two reasons. I 
 am not writing on training, and even if I were, the 
 preparation of the yearling, and the two years' ohl, 
 to bring each in proper condition for what will be 
 required of him is so similar, that here to mention 
 the slight difference of treatment would be useles^ ; 
 for the same reason, I shall omit the mode by which 
 a three years' old is brought into condition to run : 
 for in this particular, physic, exercise, and work, each 
 adapted to the colt's age, is the whole secret of what 
 was once held as the craft, in fact, mystery of train- 
 
THE EACK-HOKSE. 33 
 
 ing, a procGwSS in which there is really no more abso- 
 lute myster}'- than there need be pretended in bringing 
 a half-starved pauper, debilitated town rake, or over- 
 fed gourmand, into a healthy state, by country air, 
 proper alteratives, proper exercise, and an absti- 
 nence from what is improper for him to take and do. 
 
 It will be seen, from what I have stated as the 
 necessary time that is occupied in breaking, teaching, 
 and training a two years' old colt, that such as come 
 out fine ones, though only of perhaps thirty months' 
 age, have really two years' hard feeding in them, that 
 is the best of oats. This circumstance as much as 
 anj' thing, and perhaps more, brings out the racing 
 colt at an early age, so much more in the form and 
 with the powers of the adult horse, than is manifestel 
 in colts of a similar age differently bred, and con- 
 sequently differently fed. 
 
 I in no way, however, mean to say, I consider 
 this early forcing a colt into a horse (if I may be al- 
 lowed such expression) is eventually advantageous 
 to him. I am quite satisfied it has a direct opposite 
 tendency in more ways than one. I believe it brings 
 
 D 
 
34 PEOPEE CONDITION" POE ALL EOESES. 
 
 on not only liability but predisposition to many ail- 
 ments ; bnt, worse than all, as relates to the lasting 
 properties of the horse, it enables us to take those 
 liberties with him we could not with a colt fed more 
 in accordance with what would be necessary for his 
 mere health, and his eventually growing into a fine 
 animal. Eut his doing this would not answer the 
 purpose of the racing man ; he does not fix his mind 
 on, at a future day, possessing a fine energetic, sound 
 horse ; his object is to get a premature colt : the mode 
 of bringing him up, no doubt, promotes, indeed, 
 effects this, when the necessary means are used, 
 and the same thing that renders him premature, is 
 the foundation of condition. I may be asked whe- 
 ther such condition is proper condition, as stated in 
 the title of the book ? In reply, I beg to say, " Yes ! 
 quite proper for the racing colt, though not, perhaps, 
 quite proper for the animal, looking at him as a horse 
 only." 
 
 Let it not, however, be supposed that the colt 
 would be better if left in a state of nature, till he 
 verged on the horse. On the contrary, I am quite 
 
THE EACE-HOESE. 35 
 
 clear that sucli mode of rearing him would be highly- 
 prejudicial to him, looking at him as an animal des- 
 tined (by the mil and habits of man) to undergo 
 exertion, that he rarely or ever would undergo in a 
 state of nature. But further : in such state no horse 
 is, or can be in this country, for it would be absurd 
 to call a colt, confined in. the rich pastures of our 
 country, in a state of nature ; he is virtually in an 
 artificial state, the only difference between him and 
 the paddock reared colt would be — the one would be 
 brought up in an artificial state on rich grass in a 
 pasture, the other on good oats in a paddock. The 
 wild horse of the desert, the pampa, or the prairie, 
 is scarcely more in the same state as the one brought 
 up confined in a rich pasture, than is the one brought 
 up in the' paddock ; a fact of which the wild horse most 
 perfectly convinces those who attempt his capture ; 
 while the York, Lincoln, Leicester, or Suffolk colt, 
 would be as soon exhausted in his exertions to avoid 
 being caught, as would a sheep ; in fact, I would back 
 a good wild-bred Devon, or South-down, against hinu 
 The short hetbage the wild horse gets, the exercise 
 
 D 2 
 
36 PEOPEK C01?rPITI0>' FOS ALL HOESES. 
 
 attendant on getting enough of it, and his natural 
 roving disposition, keep him to a certain degree in 
 condition. The home bred and grass fed one is no 
 more in such state than is the ox feeding in the same 
 or the adjacent pasture. If the wild horse was as 
 well bred, and judiciously bred, as is the racing colt, 
 and if with his wild feeding and wild habits, we 
 would give him his five or six feeds of oats per day, 
 I am not clear but he would give some of our stabled 
 ones a good deal of trouble to catch him over the 
 Beacon course, nor am I sure we should see him more 
 beaten at " the Bushes," than I have seen many more 
 civilized flyers. 
 
 I have stated that I consider the means by which 
 we, as it were, force the colt into the horse to be 
 prejudicial to him, as a mere animal, in more ways 
 than one ; I have admitted it is more than probable it 
 lays the foundation for diseases of an inflammatory cha- 
 racter ; we wiU now look at its effects in another way. 
 By such precocity we are enabled to get a colt through 
 more work than falls to the lot of most horses not 
 used for racing purposes ; condition, and condition 
 
THE EACE-HOESE. 37 
 
 only, enables his internal stamina to undergo this, 
 but unfortunately we cannot, figuratively speaking, 
 give com to his joints ; high feeding, no doubt, causes 
 even these to grow into something like the dimen- 
 sions of those of the horse, but the common-place 
 saying, that '']S'ature will be served," is a very true 
 one, and though we may give an artificial constitu- 
 tion and stamina, we cannot to the same degree, or in 
 any degree approximating to it, give artificial joints, 
 or articulations of joints ; these often, nay, mostly, 
 shew that though a colt may look well, and in short 
 be, in the highest state of health and condition, na- 
 ture will not permit us to effectually force her works 
 in all ways. 
 
 Race-horses are, unfortunately for them, bred solely 
 with an eye to the pounds, shillings, and pence to be 
 made by them — so, perhaps, are the generality of other 
 animals ; but the Race-horse is now-a-days trained 
 and run, solely for these pounds, shillings, and pence. 
 !Now many other horses are used for mere show, or 
 pleasurable purposes ; if favourites, are treated in a 
 manner most likely to contribute to their continued 
 
S8 PEOPEB CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 well doing ; not so the Eace-horse, tlie effect (for or 
 against his owner's interest) of our treatment of him 
 is a matter of mere avaricious calculation, and we 
 cannot disguise this not very flattering truth, the 
 better animal he is, the more he is imposed upon. 
 " Making hay while the sun shines," is to the utmost 
 meaning of the adage, put in force with the Race- 
 horse ; and without attempting to absolutely justi^^ 
 I must in candour admit, that such proceeding is ne- 
 cessary, unless a inan subjects himself to be ruined by 
 racing ; the running a really good horse, when we 
 see a probability of his breaking down, seems cer- 
 tainly impolitic, and certainly unjustiflable. The run- 
 ning him when we feel satisfied that the winning a 
 race will incapacitate him from ever running for ano- 
 ther, to a feeling mind, borders on absolute atrocity. 
 But to first speak of the policy : That may probably 
 be good in many cases ; for if the stake be a large 
 one, and the bets heavy, the winning it may be of far 
 more consequence than patching up doubtful legs with 
 the uncertainty of their standing in future ; nor is the 
 bringing on infirmity, or rather bringing existing in- 
 
THE EACE-HOESE. 39 
 
 firmity to its climax, such unmitigated cruelty as it 
 may at first appear ; for if the goodness and character 
 of the horse or mare be such as to produce compunc- 
 tion and regret on seeing either a cripple for life — as 
 probably, after a very short time, no pain is felt, and 
 as either animal under such circumstances would 
 be kept for breeding purposes — could either speak, 
 they would probably bless the day that finished their 
 racing career, as one that brought on a life of such 
 ease, and cessation of exertion, as they never before 
 knew. 
 
 Such a case as I have last mentioned, will shew the 
 absolute necessity of condition. In such case it would 
 be held of importance enough to induce the trainer 
 to continue his horse at work at the risk of his break- 
 ing down in training ; he well knows that unless in 
 proper condition, his horse would have no more chance 
 of winning, though sound, than he would if broken 
 down, and certainly not a tithe part as much as if 
 lame ; he risks it, and then game, and the finest 
 condition, enables his horse to win, in stable phrase, 
 '^ on three legs." 
 
40 PEOPEB CONDITION FOR ALL HOESES. 
 
 An acquaintance of mine has so much gratification 
 in training Eace-horses, that without, from circum- 
 stances, being at all called on to do so, he will train 
 for any friend or acquaintance who may please to send 
 him his horses. Of all men living, I do believe he 
 takes the most pains with horses under his care ; I 
 am quite certain he thinks all day of what will be 
 most advantageous for them, and I have no doubt 
 his dreams at night have a similar tendency. He 
 mentioned to me that a friend had sent him two or 
 three second-rate horses to train ; that he was doing 
 his best for them ; but they were such cripples that 
 though he had been told, and indeed knew he was 
 not giving them proper work, he was afraid to do 
 more, lest he should break them down at once. 
 '* Pray," said I, " has their owner ever injured 
 you?" "Certainly not," said he. " Then," replied I, 
 " as you can have no wish to punish him, put his 
 horses to proper work ; the worse they are, the better 
 condition they want, to give them a shadow of a 
 chance of winning, if they can't stand getting into 
 such condition, the sooner you break them down, or 
 
TRE RACE-HOESE. 41 
 
 break their necks, the bettor for their owner." He 
 laughed, but admitted I was quite right. 
 
 As neither all the world, nor all the racing men, 
 can be wrong, and as all the latter, if they are owners 
 of horses, have agreed, that whatever may become of 
 the legs, condition must be had in the Race-horse, I 
 believe the advice I gave as above, was really to the 
 interest of the owner of the cripples ; it is a common 
 expression, particularly of persons who stickle very 
 much for that very scarce animal an absolutely sound 
 horse, that '' a horse can't go without legs." I think 
 I may fairly admit this to be fact, but he may go with 
 very queer ones, and will again. I have often seen 
 them win on three legs^^ sometimes on only two wor- 
 thy the name of legs, and once saw one win. on four 
 such legs as hardly admitted apology for calling them 
 such ; but one thing I never did see, namely, a horse 
 out of condition winning against another fit to go, 
 unless, indeed, their comparative merits were !N'ew- 
 market to a nine -pin. 
 
 "W^e will now look a little at condition in Eace- 
 horses of a different class or standing, namely, the 
 
42' PEOPEE COI^DITION FOR ALL HOESES. M 
 
 " old uns." Kow, old, used in the conventual term 
 of -the racing stable, implies quite a different meaning 
 to the one in use in other places, and in reference to 
 other horses. Old, ill other places, and used as de- 
 scription by other men, really means a horse old in 
 years ; but in racing stables it is only used in a com- 
 parative sense, in reference to absolute colts ; and the 
 term " colt" is differently estimated in racing estab- 
 lishments to what it is in hunting ones, or other 
 stables. Thus we see, on a race being described — 
 ^' In this order they ran to (say) the Duke's stand; 
 here Nat (or some other jockey) set the old horse 
 goiug." 'Now this " old horse" is probably what, in a 
 hunting stable, would be called the colt, namely, four 
 years old, and in the latter situation would only be 
 shown the hounds, prior to his being the next season 
 carefidly ridden with them for a short time, or short 
 burst, and then sent home : at five his real work has 
 not begau ; at four the Race-horse's is usually nearly 
 concluded. ISTor is -this to be wondered at ; for arti- 
 ficial precocity, though it may answer a particular 
 purpose, for the time being, is a very different state 
 
THE JIACE-HOBSE. 43 
 
 to work upon, to one where the ftdl development of 
 power is the natural production of adult age. 
 
 These old horses, as we will term them, cannot 
 confidently rely on their year's work being finished 
 befbre some time in October (of course, with excep- 
 tions) ; they will then have to be indulged for some 
 weeks in a box, as I described the young ones being 
 after breaking and trying, and before again going 
 into training. The condition of the colt, after having 
 been in exercise and training, more or less, from 
 April to November, we may suppose to be pretty 
 good; but the older horses, in that month are, in 
 slang term, '' hard as nails ;" the young ones still 
 want screwing up to a state of high and firm condition, 
 the old horses want to be let down a few pegs from 
 the tension their stamina has been kept up to ; they 
 have, at least, three years and a half hard feeding in 
 them, yet no fear of their being fat inside, and they 
 Igive ocular demonstration of having none out ; they 
 do not want nutriment or stimulus, but repose; 
 " they ask not Paradise, but rest ;" a loose box, and 
 freedom from the daily routine of gallops, the weekly. 
 
4-1 mOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 or, at least, frequent recurrence of sweats, and tlie 
 often-repeated excitement, and (with some) dread of 
 the race. Absence of these is paradise to them ; and 
 the beneficial results of constant hard feeding in such 
 horses is shown by the change a short respite from 
 work makes in them. The animal who, on being 
 thrown out of work, was seen so bored and jaded by 
 it a boy could scarcely kick him along in his walking 
 exercise, will, in a less time than could be supposed, 
 be seen playing in his box, and require some caution 
 in the boy that he does not get hurt by the gambols 
 of the animal that, a month before, was merely a 
 machine that had the power when roused to it, but 
 wanted inclination to show the amount of speed and 
 endurance constant training had wrought him up to. 
 
 I stated, at the commencement of these sheets, that 
 I considered the proper definition of the term " con- 
 dition," as applied to horses, to be a proper, indeed 
 the most proper, state they can be brought to, to un- 
 dergo what we may require of them, the state of 
 condition of course varying in accordance with what 
 is or may be required. Condition certainly implies a 
 
THE EACE-HOESE. 46 
 
 state fit to go ; but with horses that have been going, 
 we must now pay attention to quite another sort of 
 condition — namely, condition to rest. Therefore 
 horses with their bodies, that is, constitutions, heated 
 by high feeding and frequent excitement, require care 
 lest the sudden transition from strong work to rest 
 may produce detrimental instead of beneficial effects ; 
 there is no more mystery in the mode to be adopted 
 in letting down our living machine than there is in 
 the winding up. The chief thing required to effect 
 either is good judgment in adapting our measures to 
 the state, constitution, and disposition of the different 
 animals under observation. Physic, change of food, 
 diminishing, more or less, the exercise of each ani- 
 mal, and leaving others in a state of absolute and total 
 rest, are the only measures necessary to be adopted 
 with horses out of training, if they are iu good 
 health. If they are not, and I could not decidedly 
 fix on the cause of it, I should lose no time in sending 
 for such professional skill as probably would ; for I 
 ever held it a maxim, that no horse should be per- 
 mitted to remain a day after illness of some sort was 
 
46 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 detected, without means being taken to prevent its 
 going on : a certain degree of heat of blood, filling, 
 more or less, of the legs, sore backs, cracked heels, or 
 perhaps sore shins, and battered feet, are the leading 
 ailments found in Race-horses after a season's racing 
 career. These predominated much more formerly 
 than now; for before Race-horse vans, and subse- 
 quently rail-roads, were in general use, a four year 
 old country plater often did not see his home for 
 months together. Then change of stables, water, 
 provender, and exercise ground, sometimes hot and 
 dusty, then again wet roads to travel on, sometimes 
 unavoidable chills from weather, and sometimes un- 
 skilful blacksmiths, laid a horse fkr more open to such 
 casualties as I have mentioned than he is now, when 
 he may be said to be constantly under the trainer's 
 eye. Formerly, a Race-horse of a certain age was 
 stai'ted off on what might be called a regular spring, 
 summer, and autumn's circuit or campaign — either 
 term will do ; for Judge, General, or Race-horse sel- 
 dom go on such expeditions without something bor- 
 dering »n plunder being contemplated in some way. 
 
THE HACE-HOESE. 47 
 
 Having shown that proper condition is required for 
 each of the situations in which I have as yet shown 
 the Eace-horse, young or old, I will suppose him to 
 have had his six weeks or two months' indulgence ; 
 we have to begin to screw hitn up again, not to con- 
 cert, but to running pitch. I do not mean here to 
 go through the description of the mode or treatment ; 
 for as probably the reader never contemplates the 
 training his own horse, a description of such would 
 only weary, without being useful to him ; but as 
 aUusive to proper condition, I trust it may be accept- 
 able if I say something on a point that I know has 
 somewhat puzzled some who, though conversant with 
 the general or even proper treatment of ordinary 
 horses, know little of the routine of racing stables. 
 
 I have frequently heard persons express surprise at 
 the idea of a Eace-horse being made fit to run on a 
 certain day, and have expressed an idea, that if a 
 horse is quite up to the mark in point of racing con- 
 dition, that he must be ready, or fit to go on any day, 
 while in such condition ; and such conclusion I admit 
 to be a natural one enough. No doubt, if a horse is fit 
 
48 PEOfEE COXDiriOT FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 to run, it matters not when he runs ; but " there's the 
 rub," he cannot be kept quite fit to run on am/ day 
 that he may be unexpectedly called upon, and it 
 is that which appears mysterious to so many, and 
 which 1 shall endeavour to explain ; and I am the 
 more tempted to do so, from a late occurrence shewing 
 me such explanation is wanting to many. 
 
 The reader, and indeed the public, know a good many 
 stringent remarks were made not long since on the 
 stewai'd of certain races putting off such meeting for a 
 week. Owners, trainers, jockies, and betters, were all 
 loud in their deprecations of such proceeding; so I need, 
 say nothing to add to such censure. More than one 
 of my acquaintances, (and one or two of those were 
 hunting men,) considered the censure far exceeded 
 the offence ; I have no doubt either of these would 
 have held the change of a meet of the fox«hounds, 
 without due notice being given, a far greater cause 
 for such censure. The merits of such opinion 
 it is not my business to discuss, but the remarks made 
 are more germane to the affair in hand. They quite 
 agreed that those who might come to see the races 
 
 I 
 
THE EACE-HOESE. 49 
 
 might have cause to complain of their disappoint- 
 ment, and the probable inconvenience, or expense, it 
 might produce ; but they did not see, if a horse was 
 ready to run on the Monday or Tuesday, why he 
 should not be just as fit to run on the next ; they 
 were probably thinking of their Hunters, who, when 
 once in condition, may be held, if well, fit to go on 
 any day ; it is far different with the Race-horse, and 
 no mystery in the case either. 
 
 It is by progressive means, the Race-horse is brought 
 from any state to that condition that makes him fit to 
 race ; but he is not in a state to be quite fit to run on 
 any day. From first-rate general racing condition, 
 he is by further progressive work brought up to the 
 necessary, or desirable point, at which he can run in 
 his best form ; this is done by increasing the pace, 
 length, or both (as the case may be) of his gallops, 
 and sweat some days previous to his going for the 
 race he is engaged in. The trainer makes him com- 
 mence this increased work, earlier or later, previous 
 to the day of running, as he knows will best suit the 
 condition and constitution of his horse ; in which^ 
 
50 PEOPEE COITDITIOiN FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 temper has also sometimes to be taken into considera- 
 tion; for unless it is, one might become alarmed, 
 another might more or less sulk. Now, why horses 
 cannot be kept up to the highest possible state of con- 
 dition to race is this ; the kind of work they undergo 
 for some time before the day they expect to run, is 
 such as no horse could stand for any length of time, 
 without his constitution, spirits, and legs, suffering by 
 it ; like many other things, a certain quantum gives 
 increased vigour ; the dose too strong, or too often re- 
 peated, kills ; so the very discipline that for, say ten 
 days, brings the horse out with increased powers, 
 would have an opposite effect if carried on ten days 
 longer, so a trainer has no little cause for apprehen- 
 sion, if having his horse just at what he knows is his 
 best form on a particular day, he finds the race put off 
 for seven days to come. 
 
 It may be said that other horses engaged in the 
 same race will be placed under the same disadvan- 
 tage. If they would be so, it would' be fair enough, as 
 each would run under similar disadvantage, and they 
 would do this if every horse was exactly alike in usual 
 
 ^ 
 
THE RACE-nOESE. 51 
 
 constitution, wind, soundness, and temper ; but, of 
 course, so far from so being, they vary in these parti- 
 culars, and many others, very considerably ; therefore 
 some would be very much affected by the delay, others 
 not near so much, and some perhaps not at all. There 
 are certain horses naturally light in their middles, 
 light in themselves, and always so clear in their wind, 
 that they want little preparation ; and, in fact, figura- 
 tively speaking, the less they get the better they are. 
 Such would not suffer by a change of day, or rather 
 a week ; but a strong constitutioned, therefore proba- 
 bly, comparatively speaking, thick- winded horse, re- 
 quires such slavery to get him right, that nature would 
 cry "enough," if he had to continue it ; for, though 
 such slavery may be necessary to get off any spare 
 flesh he may have on him, and to get him clear in his 
 wind, it is not beneficial to his spirits, or legs ; so more 
 than is indispensable to give vigour to the constitution, 
 lighten the body, and clear the wind, would render 
 him jaded in his spiiits and stale on his legs ; and 
 the legs of such horses usually do suffer much in 
 training; the apparent mystery, therefore, of preparing 
 
 r. 2 
 
52 PEOPEE CON^DITIOIf FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 a horse for a particular day is easily solved ; it is 
 merely so regulating his work, as to bring him to his 
 best'form at a given time ; and unless he is brought to 
 this, if the others are, he must be very superior in- 
 deed to have a chance of beating them. 
 
 There are three observations I shall make to my 
 reader, and I believe and trust the truth of them wiU 
 not be denied by any owner of Eace-horses, or the 
 trainers of them. Second-rate horses, in second-rate 
 condition, will nine times in ten lose ; second-rate 
 horses, in bad condition, will always lose, and the best 
 horses in bad condition will very rarely win. Condi- 
 tion will certainly pull an inferior horse through 
 against a better, but then even the better must be 
 bad ; for good ones are not allowed to run, unless 
 their condition is what it ought to be. 
 
 We often hear that such a horse *' was not fit," 
 '' was short of work," " was not in his usual form," 
 nay, sometimes it is asserted roundly that he " was 
 dead amiss," when he was beaten for such or such a 
 race. I never attach any credence to such reports ; 
 instead of the horse having been amiss, the saying so 
 
THE "RACE-HOESE. OO 
 
 is generally a hit to answer some purpose. Horses, 
 if they are of a class superior to those only fit to run 
 for saddles and bridles, are not permitted to start if 
 "dead amiss." I must, however, contradict myself 
 here, for in truth many do start when in such state, 
 but fsub voce) not when they are meant to win ; for 
 then, depend on it, the condition of the horse will be 
 good enough, whatever may be the conditions made 
 on starting him, which are sometimes little deviations 
 from what people might expect, that lead to results they 
 anticipate still less. Such conditions sometimes in no 
 trifling degree deceive the public ; but it is very rarely 
 the trainer allows the condition of his horse to deceive 
 him. Proper condition is first, last, head, and front, 
 of all attention and intention in a racing stable ; next 
 to that, is attention to the state of the legs. These 
 are doubtless objects of the greatest importance to 
 most horses, they are of great importance to the Kace- 
 horse, but even these must yield in our consideration 
 to the still greater importance of condition. 
 
 Having taken a cursory glance at Eace-horses, in 
 their several states and gradations, from the paddock 
 
54 PEOPEE CON^DITION FOB /.LL HORSES. 
 
 to the race-course, we will now look at them in a 
 very different situation ; namely, their duties done as 
 E/acers, and, supposing them to have been superior, 
 or, if not, their blood to be of a fashionable and run- 
 ning character, we will look at them when "put to 
 the stud," that is, devoted to breeding purposes ; and 
 as the Race-horse begins Hfe, or at least ought to begin 
 it, under the strictest attention to his proper condition 
 as a foal, so he ought to end it under the same atten- 
 tion as Sire or Dam. 
 
 "Without attempting to enter on pathological dis- 
 quisition, I should consider that perfect health and 
 constitution in the parents are matters of the first 
 consequence, when we wish to breed an animal who 
 will require both in the highest perfection to enable 
 him to go through the severe ordeal to which the 
 Eace-horse is necessarily subjected. I^ow there is 
 a proper condition to ensure or promote perfect health 
 in a state of ease, as there is to ensure the same state 
 1 nder constant exertion ; and imless attention is paid 
 to such condition in both situations, disorganization, 
 if not disease of the system, will manifest itself in 
 
THE EACE-HOESE. 55 
 
 one situation as well as in the other, though in a 
 different way. It is very probable that disease may 
 shew itself in a way, and of a character that may 
 not in the same fDrm be perpetuated to the offspring ; 
 but it is more than probable that its effects would in 
 some way be inherited, at aU events, it would be highly 
 injudicious to risk such consequences to an animal 
 that we at least hope will prove a valuable one. 
 
 As I before stated, I do not intend here to enter on 
 the subject of breeding, but shall confine myself to 
 condition ; and the proper condition of Sire and Dam 
 shall be the limits of my observations. 
 
 K it is allowed me that health and vigour are 
 great desideratums in producing healthftd and vigor- 
 ous progeny, let us see what is likely to produce such 
 in the parents ; on this I know I am at issue with 
 some to whose opinion in many things I bow in de- 
 ference, but as they have not in this particular con- 
 vinced me they are right, so have they failed in 
 bringing me to the conviction I am wrong. I reason 
 on this point from analogy, and analogy not based on 
 theory, but admitted fact. I^ow I take this as my 
 
56 PROPER CONDITION I'OE ALL HOESES. 
 
 data. Exercise, and a proper state between a wasted 
 frame and one loaded to obesity, ai'e botb necessary 
 to a state of health, and the full enjoyment of dif- 
 ferent attributes of body, and in man greatly conduce 
 to those of the mind also ; with this conviction full 
 before them, I have always considered the generality 
 of owners of Sires treat them in a way setting such 
 conviction at defiance ; for instance, a Eace-horse is 
 taken from a state of constant exercise and periodical 
 strong work, accustomed from a colt to the bracing 
 air of the downs, or training ground, (which must 
 be at all events an extensive open space), from this as 
 a Sire, he is put into a box, often without any outlet 
 to it ; and here, without any exercise beyond what 
 he may be disposed or enabled to give himself, the first 
 desideratum with many owners seems to be to get the 
 greatest quantum of avoirdupoise, in the shape of fat 
 on him, that his frame can carry. Quere, Have we 
 never heard of apoplexy with such horses ? if so, 
 doubtless there long existed tendency towards it, and 
 where such tendency exists, I cannot conceive the 
 system to have been in the fuU enjoyment of perfect 
 
THE EACE-nORSE. 57 
 
 health. It is quite true such horses will "come from 
 their box looking vigorous enough, and probably 
 riotous enough ; this is no proof of vigorous health, 
 but excitement, from knowing the cause of their being 
 brought out ; and well they may, for few are brought 
 out on any other occasion. 
 
 I have had three I used fbr such purpose : one a 
 thorough-bred one, that was so used in the spring, but 
 he got his day a week, or nearly so, with the hounds 
 in the winter, and regular gentle exercise in summer ; 
 another was a Yorkshire harness horse, he I kept at 
 regular moderate work, and at exercise in harness, 
 even during the spring ; the other was, or had been, 
 a Race-horse, he was one of the best Hacks, notwith- 
 standing this, I ever had ; I rode him constantly as 
 such, and short airings all through the spring season ; 
 each of these were somewhat high in flesh, but not 
 loaded with flesh to really encumber them. 
 
 I am quite certain that the Sire, worth a bare hun- 
 dred, that is led from fair to fair in the spring, is 
 treated in a way far more conducive to his health and 
 vigour, and that of his progeny, than is the one wortli 
 three thousand. 
 
58 TEOPER co^^)rrIox for all hohses. 
 
 It is a common expression with grooms attending 
 such Sires, that the horses' '' work," as it is techni- 
 cally called, is quite sufficient exertion ''without any 
 other:" no idea can be more preposterous; if it is 
 work, the more he requires proper exercise to bring 
 him to proper condition to perform it without danger 
 from it. Let a horse in this gross state be taken a 
 canter of a quarter of a mile; if he is not heard 
 to be a roarer, which he very probably has become, 
 it would be found that after this quarter of a mile 
 canter, he would be in a somewhat different state 
 to what he was when after a four mile sweat at a 
 telling pace his boy said, or might have said, " he 
 wouldn't have blown a candle out ;" the slightest ex- 
 ertion now would set him blowing like a grampus, 
 and the effect of half a mile gentle canter would 
 probably be finding him on his back in his box. I 
 must maintain, such a horse is not in perfect health ; 
 idleness and stimulating food, and being in a state of 
 excitement, keep him in high, but false spirits, but 
 his system is virtually in a state of comparative de- 
 bility. Port wine, turtle, and an easy chair, would 
 
THE EACE-HOliSE ^9 
 
 no doubt produce a person that a Turk would consider 
 handsome ; but without meaning indelicacy in the 
 allusion, I am not aware that such Aldermanic Sire 
 would be the best to select, if we wanted a race of 
 Kmmers, Hunters, or Warriors. Horses for stud pur- 
 poses are not wanted to be in racing or hunting con- 
 dition, but the condition of the fat ox is even worse 
 by far than either of the others would be. 
 
 It may be very fairly urged, that the state of the 
 legs, and, much oftener than the public suspect, the 
 state of the wind of stud horses, precludes their taking 
 such exercise as I would wish to give them ; not a 
 bit. Few are in such state as not to be capable 
 of taking exercise of some sort, and in some way ; 
 and if I was offered the use of a paddock of unusual 
 size, that a horse could exercise himself in, I would 
 reject it ; I would greatly prefer a horse, infirm or not, 
 taking exercise at my discretion than his own ; if he 
 was sound, he would not probably be disposed to 
 give himself exercise enough ; if otherwise, the 
 twists, turns, and sudden stops, a loose horse gives 
 himself, would be very likely to make him worse. 
 
CO PEOPEE COXDlTlOy TOE ALL BOSSES. 
 
 On his back, or with him in hand, we can give him.! 
 as much exercise as he requires, and no more ; and i 
 such with me he should, to the best of my judgment, 
 daily get : and I should not fear that, in point of proper 
 condition for his destined purpose, he would show 
 badly. 
 
 "We will now turn to the mares put to the stud. 
 As regards them, I am precisely of the same opinion 
 as I entertain respecting the Sire — they should be well, 
 and look well ; their condition should shew they 
 were liberally, but judiciously fed and attended to ; 
 they should be fed in such quantity as would make 
 each shew she got enough, that is, she should be a 
 little higher in flesh than a working mare, but I hold 
 absolute fatness to be not only detrimental to her and 
 her offspring, but dangerous to both. Stating the, 
 quantum of general food or com that horses in any 
 state require, can at best be but given as regards 
 several together and taking the average ; so it is 
 with the brood mares ; but this is quite certain, be it 
 little or much, each should get what will keep her in 
 a healthy, and, if I may use the tenn, comfortable 
 
THE RACE-HOUSE. CI 
 
 state. If I had a favourite horse, and found it 
 was necessary or beneficial to him to get a bushel 
 of com a day, he should have it, if money was no 
 object ; but if I had one in the next stall who would 
 only eat three quarterns, if he looked well, and felt 
 well, I should have no fear of his being and going 
 weU ; such difference would only shew the nutritious 
 quality of com took more effect on the one than the 
 other, or that the digestive powers of one were 
 stronger and quicker than the other. To shew that such 
 difference in animal powers of stomach is the case, I 
 will give personal illustrations of it, and I assure my 
 reader I shall in no way exaggerate. 
 
 A. Mend of mine has the bump of digestiveness de- 
 veloped in a somewhat extraordinary degree, — at least, 
 I suppose he has, though I have not seen it ; but 
 proofs of his digestive powers, or rather of the quan- 
 tum he gives them to digest, I have. 
 
 His pursuit obliges him to breakfast early; this 
 consists of three eggs, a twopenny loaf, two mutton 
 chops, or two equally solid slices of broiled ham ; at 
 eleven o'clock he is famishing ; not a sandwich, but 
 
62 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 sandwiches, and a pint of Bass' sale, to stop this craving. 
 Though with a strong predilection for what is fashion- 
 able, his predilection for eating is greater, so beyond' 
 four o'clock he cannot get without his dinner ; for 
 this he patronizes sundry table d'hotes ; but to his 
 credit be it said, that, as a matter of conscience, he 
 lings the changes on them, so only victimises each in 
 its turn. Being a pleasant fellow and single man, he 
 dines out by invitation certainly three times a week ; 
 by six, or whatever the dinner hour may be, the table 
 d'hote seems to have been forgotten, or nearly so, 
 for at that hour he really eats no more than the best 
 feeder at table ; he never interferes with any edible 
 produced with tea, — not that he could not, but a 
 dozen, more or less, of bank-note bread and butter 
 would not affect him, so he modestly declines eating 
 " slices for six," and to empty a plate of anything else 
 would be imgentlemanly. If it is an old fashioned fa- 
 mily, and any supper is produced, he is somehow always 
 particularly partial to whatever appears as least likely 
 to shew diminution by the quantity taken from it ; as 
 regards anything else that in his polite attentions to 
 
THn; EACE-nOESE. 63 
 
 his neiglibours lie recommends, he is sure to shew his 
 sincerity by also helping himself. On his return to 
 his lodgings his supper is always laid ready for him ; 
 and he declares he knows not why, but he always 
 relishes that meal more than any other in the day. 
 Jiow for myself, after my breakfast, I very rarely 
 touch anything in the eating way till dinner; at that, 
 soup I never refuse, fish I do not often eat, and cer- 
 tainly four ounces of animal food is as much as I can 
 manage ; tea I cannot do vdthout ; two thin slices of 
 bread and butter suffice for me, and supper I do not 
 take. Yet I and my friend are about on a par as to 
 condition as regards the flesh we carry, which is not 
 much on either. 
 
 The acquaintance I mentioned as being so partial 
 to training, has usually a brood mare or two of his 
 own, and also of some Mends, under his care ; these 
 are fat as prize cattle, yet he is scarcely satisfied ; I 
 reaUy believe his estimation of what this proper con- 
 dition should be, would be their being unable to walk : 
 now mine would be their being, in regard of flesh, 
 quite able and willing to trot, and I am quite satis- 
 
64 PEOPEK COXDITION FOR AXL HOESES. 
 
 fied, that if in the early part of gestation, they 
 were gently ridden, they would be all the better for 
 it, that is, if the state of their legs permitted it. 
 Cart mares not only undergo exercise during this 
 period, but work, having but a very short period of 
 idleness allowed them ; and I think I am right in 
 saying, that fewer casualties occur among them than 
 among the thorough-breds. N'o animal can be in 
 really good condition, for even the purpose of common 
 health, that is fat inside, and I should say, such state 
 at the time of parturition, is an extremely dangerous 
 one. Vigorous health in the dam, while she carries 
 the embryo horse, no doubt renders it vigorous also, 
 but fat creates no vigour in anything. We will not 
 apply the term "mind," to the dumb animal, but 
 temperament, I think more than probably, in the mo- 
 ther influences it in the progeny, and a dull and 
 all but lethargic temperament brought on by obesity 
 and want of active habit in the dam, is, I should say, 
 very likely to produce sluggish feeling and disposition 
 in the foal. 
 
 The racing colt is not allowed to depend longer for 
 
THE BACE-HOESE. 65 
 
 its support on its mother than can be helped, I ad- 
 mit, but even so it must depend on it for a time ; 
 therefore, if she is not in the finest possible state of 
 health while suckling her foal, it would certainly be 
 sucking nutriment of a deleterious quality, whereas 
 its quality ought to be of the very best ; and perfect 
 health, it seems rational to suppose, is most likely to 
 produce this. Medical practitioners often entertain 
 considerable apprehension of untoward consequences, 
 when engaged to attend a patient of very lusty body 
 and inactive habits, and strongly urge exercise to 
 counteract such state. Our own species are not, in 
 the ordinary proceedings of nature, so diametrically 
 opposite to all others, as to render what is either bene- 
 ficial or hurtful to the one, its reverse as regards the 
 other. 
 
 If I was writing on the subject of breeding, I should 
 venture my ideas as regards the very important part 
 of it, namely, the selection of proper animals to breed 
 from ; but this not being the case, I confine my ob- 
 servations to their condition, a point of perhaps equal 
 importance as the breed ; for with the best blood the 
 
 F 
 
66 PEOrER CONDITION FOE ALL HORSES. 
 
 most judicious care can select, we shall certainly fail 
 in deriving the full benefit of such care, and of course, 
 expense, unless sire, dam, foal, and Eace-horse, are 
 each kept in proper condition for the purposes to 
 which they are severally designed. 
 
 I have endeavoured, in the foregoing sheets, to 
 show that the hopes of the breeder, owner, and 
 trainer of Eacing stock mainly depends on proper 
 condition. Certainly a fortune does not depend on 
 the condition of any other horse ; but I can assure my 
 reader his comfort, pleasure, credit, and indeed inte- 
 rest, as mainly do, whether I may convince him that 
 it is so or not. I will therefore now take in hand a 
 very old acquaintance — 
 
 THE HTJ]S"TEE. 
 
 Unless there is hunting, we certainly should not 
 have Hunters ; but we may go further, and say fhat, 
 in a general way, in this country, unless we had 
 Hunters, we should not have hunting. There are 
 certainly countries where the men are hunters, but 
 not the Jwrses. Defend me from such; for though 
 
THE HITN^TEE. 67 
 
 with the Hunters I could get on pretty well without 
 the men, yet I could not get on at aU with the men 
 without the Hunters; — at least, not at all to my 
 liking. I have tried it lately, and like it about as 
 well as I expected I should ; in short, it has thrown 
 me quite out of my " Hne of country." ** Faute 
 d'autres choses;^^ or, as I once heard it facetiously 
 Anglicised — "for want of other shoes," I might 
 stand on the top of a mountain, to see hoimds run 
 round its sides and base ; but if I did, it would not 
 be for any thing like enjoyment, but to indulge the 
 morbid gratification of feeling unmitigated wretched- 
 ness, in comparing it with, and calling back, recol- 
 lections of scenes where proper country, proper men, 
 hounds, horses, and proper condition, made me feel 
 a good deal nearer heaven than when perched some 
 thousands of feet higher than I ever before was. 
 
 "We must not set it down as decided fact, that we 
 are better judges of horses than men were a hundred 
 years ago ; nor must we consider that such men were 
 really unacquainted with what condition meant, or 
 the means by which horses were brought into it : for 
 
 r2 
 
68 PBOPEE CONDITION FOB ALL HOESES. 
 
 we aro perfectly aware that no horse could run a four 
 mile heat in usual time until he was in tip-top con- 
 dition ; and as very many years ago we know the 
 Beacon has been gone over in as short time as since 
 that period, men in those days — no matter how they 
 did it— did most certainly get horses into the finest 
 condition ; if they did not, their horses must have 
 been better than we have them now, to have enabled 
 them to run, as they unquestionably did, if not so well 
 prepared. We know that in those days five, six, 
 eight, even ten miles iiave been frequently run ; this 
 surely requires proper condition ; and the condition 
 horses must have been in to run such lengths, would, 
 I conceive, not do very badly for Leicestershire. 
 Let us not, therefore, be arrogant enough to say, as I 
 have heard said, " Our forefathers knew nothing of 
 condition." They knew all about it; and, where 
 wanted, produced it in its best state. The only dif- 
 ference between them and us was, and is, this : they 
 wanted condition in their Race-horses, and they got 
 it ; they did not want it in their Hunters, so did not 
 put it in practice ; if they had wanted it, they would 
 
THE HUNTER. 69 
 
 have applied it to one animal as much as to the 
 other. 
 
 I have certainly seen some nostrums and modes of 
 treatment attributed to trainers of olden times, that 
 carried absurdity to the highest pitch (if ever they 
 were practised) ; but I should doubt their having been 
 so, by any man recognised as a known and skilful 
 trainer of his day. Beans were given to a consider- 
 able extent in those days ; now we give them very 
 sparingly, when they are given ; but when horses ran 
 such awful distances as they did formerly, in truth 
 they wanted something to enable them to do it ; and 
 as in former days postmasters found Post-horses could 
 not stand their work without beans, when Race- 
 horses went all but a stage too, possibly— nay, I 
 should say probably — they required them as much as 
 the other. I have heard of raw eggs having been 
 given to Race-horses of times gone by ; and suppose 
 they were. As I never tried them, I am not prepared 
 to deny any efficacy they might be supposed to have 
 possessed. I have heard them recommended to 
 human beings, so they might make a horse run like 
 
70 PHOPEE CONDiriON" FOB ALL HOESES. 
 
 the D — 1, for all I know ; but as I found my horses 
 did pretty well without them — why, I eat them my- 
 self. Many things might be equally laughed at, as 
 being unnatural to the horse. Qusere, is not whiskey 
 unnatural to him ? yet I have seen it given in Ire- 
 land, and taken too by horses as well as men. I 
 have seen it given a horse between heats. Is gin, 
 ale, sugar, and ginger natural to a horse ; yet my 
 Hunters soon learned to take it, and would have 
 taken it every day, if it had been offered them. One 
 thing I believe ; the generality of horses will not eat 
 " oysters :" I inJfer they will not, from the following 
 anecdote : — 
 
 A traveller arriving at an inn very wet and cold — 
 (not the inn, but himself) — ^found the fire so surrounded 
 he could not get near it, nor could sundry hints induce 
 a movement to give him any benefit from its warmth. 
 He rang the beU. '' Have you any oysters ? " * ' Plenty, 
 sir." *' Open a dozen and a half, and bring them to me, 
 with some pepper and a lemon : you need not lay a 
 cloth." The oysters came ; and after squeezing a drop 
 of lemon juice on each, and a proper sprinkling of pep- 
 
THE HITNTEE. 71 
 
 per — " Take them on the dish as they are, and give 
 them to my horse." " To your horse ! sir?" cried the 
 astonished waiter. '^ Yes, just show him the dish ; he 
 will pick them up." *' Very weU, sir," said the man, 
 chuckling at the idea of seeing the horse take his un- 
 usual treat. " WeU," said the other travellers, "we 
 must go and see your extraordinary horse ; does he 
 often eat oysters ?" " No," most voraciously said the 
 traveller; "I only order them for him on particular 
 occasions . ' ' Off they went, and the traveller ensconced 
 himself most comfortably in a chair before the fire. 
 Presently, in came thewaiter with the dish of oysters, 
 followed by the disappointed party. " Your horse 
 won't touch the oysters, sir : as soon as I showed him 
 the dish, he snorted, so I was glad to get out of his 
 stall." " Never mind," said the traveller, " they 
 will do for my supper ; and as I am getting warm, 
 you may now lay my cloth." The other travellers 
 saw the hoax that had been played on them, so 
 walked off. 
 
 We of the eighteenth century have certainly fair 
 right to claim the -merit of adopting the true system 
 
72 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOKSES. 
 
 of keeping a Hunter in condition, namely, by keeping 
 him at home — that is, from grass. But we must not 
 consider the system as a discovery, or as perfectly 
 new : our ancestors practised it where they knew its 
 effects were desirable ; they did not turn Race-horses 
 to grass. It may be said they could not do so, such 
 horses being entire : granted ; but we do not hear that 
 they turned racing mares to grass — indeed, we know 
 that they did not ; they knew well enough that conti- 
 nued hard feeding was necessary to the condition of 
 the Race-horse, but they considered it was detrimental 
 to the sound duration of his constitution. Whether, on 
 an average, it is so or not, I do not believe has been 
 clearly decided or proved ; but supposing it does, like 
 other stimulants, more or less bring on a predisposi- 
 tion to disease, the causing him to make exertions 
 that were beyond what he is in a state to bear, would 
 injure his constitution still more. "With less stimu- 
 lating feeding, and more moderate work, I doubt not 
 but, as an animal, he might last longer in a healthy 
 state, but certainly not as a Race-horse. We hear of 
 our ancestors riding a horse for twenty seasons : this, 
 
THE HTJirrEE. 73 
 
 it may be said, speats in favour of the old plan of 
 turning them out ; it really, however, does not ; it 
 only shows that the horse, like any other machine, 
 cannot be expected to last as long where the wear 
 and tear is great, as where it is more moderately 
 used. 
 
 The great mistake our forefethers made in the treat- 
 ment of their Hunters, was, they treated them and 
 their Race-horses far too differently ; but such horses 
 were at that time quite a distinct animal, and the treat- 
 ment was as distinct ; fifty years since, the only horse, 
 except the Race-horse, that was in real condition, was 
 the Poster, in a first-rate posting establishment. These 
 were really in condition, and much more fit to go 
 with hounds than were Hunters in the best hunting 
 stables. Perhaps I mention, as a time when such 
 was the case, some what too late a period — I do not 
 mean as regards the Post-horse, but the Hunter ; but 
 at the period I mention, had a man wanted to do a 
 gallop match of a hundred miles in five hours, with 
 ten horses, he would certainly have made much 
 more sure of condition to do it, by selecting from a 
 
74 PEOPEE COJfDITlON FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 Hoimslow or Salt-hill post-stable, than by borrowing 
 an equal number of Hunters from his friends. 
 
 Our forefathers went a good deal on the old-fashioned 
 contented plan of " letting weU alone," and if they 
 got a thing to answer well enough, with them it was 
 enough. This was a mistake; nothing is good enough, 
 if it would do what we want of it better, by being 
 better. If a Hunter merely somehow brings a man 
 in when a fox is killed, he is not good enough, at 
 least not f6r the hounds he was ridden with. If it is 
 admitted, which it is at all hands, that formerly horses 
 did not get into condition, that is true and proper 
 condition, before nearly the end of the season, such 
 horses were not well enough, surely. I should say, 
 therefore, that hunting men of those days were far 
 more to be blamed for carelessness, obstinacy, and pre- 
 judice, than laughed at for ignorance, as to condition. 
 We will suppose that their Hunters carried them to 
 hounds, as they were bred and treated at that time, with 
 about the same degrees of ease or distress as Hunters 
 carry us in the present day. The good people of that 
 time were really under circumstances, as to being 
 
THE HTmXEE. 75 
 
 better carried, that we are not; they were aware 
 their Hunters were not in the best condition they might 
 be, they were therefore to be made better, and they 
 imew how to make them so ; so if they chose to be 
 indifferently carried, it was their own faults, for they 
 had the remedy in their own hands. Now we know 
 of no means by which we could improve the con- 
 dition of Hunters, in first-rate stables. In fast 
 countries, they are brought as near the Eace-horse in 
 point of condition as they well can be ; it is not 
 therefbre with us, that our horses are well enough, and 
 therefore we are contented with them as they are ; the 
 truth is, we do not know how to make them better. 
 In saying this, I only allude to Hunters under first- 
 rate management ; for under other, there are many 
 Hunters going, who it would be very easy to put 
 into better condition, but very difficult to see in worse. 
 To gentlemen owning such, I dedicate and address 
 what I may say about the proper condition of Hun- 
 ters. 
 
 I hold it certain fact, that no horse can continue 
 long in condition at any work, if he does that work 
 
76 PKOPER CONDITION FOH ALI HOUSES. 
 
 in distress. Strong exercise, strong exertion, and 
 strong work, all invigorate, if properly administered ; 
 distress debilitates. I may be asked, is not a Race- 
 horse sometimes distressed by a long and fast sweat ? 
 Kg doubt such might be his case, if in the hands of a 
 very bad trainer, but never in those of a good one. 
 The moment anything like distress occurs to a horse 
 in training, that horse is over-marked, and the trainer 
 over-rated as to ability, who permits it to occur. Not 
 to subject any horse to distress, we must be careful 
 that he is in every way equal to the task set him ; 
 he must be equal to it, and should be above it in 
 strength, wind, speed, and powers of endurance, at 
 the time ; if he is not, he will be distressed, and mis- 
 chief more or less will be done. A Hunter, then as a 
 commencement, should always be above the weight 
 he has to carry ; the being so gives him a similar ad- 
 vantage that he will derive from great speed, namely, 
 that if judiciously ridden, he has always spare exer- 
 tion left in him. I like rather large horses, though 
 I should not recommend such to others, but in liking 
 large ones as Hunters, and it is only for Hunters I do 
 
THE HUNTEE. 77' 
 
 like them, we must take care there is no Coach in 
 them. I have occasionally seen such thunder along 
 in a surprising way, but I hardly ever saw one of 
 those surprising ones carry a man pleasantly, or like a 
 gentleman, our being surprised at such unexpected 
 effects, is about as flattering to the horse as our saying 
 of a man, in extenuation of his usual deportment and 
 appearance, ** I assure you his manners in society are 
 far from bad," suppressing the inward reservation of 
 "for such a beast." For myself, I can only say, do, 
 let me have something at the cover's side, that looks 
 like my knowing what a Hunter is, if I throw 
 myself into a muddy ditch afterwards, in excuse for 
 not going as long as the surprising brute I have al- 
 luded to. 
 
 In the next place, we must inform ourselves of the 
 country the horse comes from, and the kind of rider 
 he has carried ; if the first is a thickly enclosed one, 
 or the rider one of the mere " well enough" sort ; if 
 such a horse is taken into a flying country, and is 
 ridden by a man who thinks nothing weU enough 
 that is not forward enough, it will take a season's 
 
7S' PROrEE COXDITION TOR ALL HORSES. 
 
 seasoning before such a horse will go in it, and keep 
 his condition ; and not then, if his speed is only such 
 as qualified him for the Ghee Who country he came 
 from. ]S"ow I have done most things to be done on a 
 farm — sown, reaped, mowed, pitched, stacked, thrashed, 
 driven and held plough. I object to neither when on 
 foot, but I swear by Agricola, I don't bargain for hold- 
 ing plough on horseback. I must say, I do like to 
 see a mane before me, that looks as if it would be no 
 incongruity to plait it ; but then if we reject anything 
 of the coach in a Hunter, we must still more eschew 
 anything of the weed. A weedy thorough-bred is 
 ])ad as a Eace-horse, but if he cannot race, he is abso- 
 lately good for nothing ; neither would ever keep up 
 to the mark as to condition ; the one because want of 
 breeding would make pace distress; the other, because 
 any moderate hunting weight would distress him also. 
 We will suppose a Hunter to have been selected, well 
 ap to the weight he will have to carry, and that at 
 the time he is purchased he is to the eye and touch 
 in good condition ; if we want to keep him so, the 
 first thing is to learn under what treatment he became 
 
THE HTJKTEK. 79 
 
 80, for it is such circumstaiices that must direct our 
 treatment of a new purchase. 
 
 If I was shown a horse, as a Hunter, at the end of 
 a season, and saw him with more flesh on him than 
 it could be expected he could exhibit after (say) four 
 and twenty weeks' hunting, so far from thinking it 
 any recommendation to him, I should strongly suspect 
 him of having been lame and laid by ; of being an 
 unpleasant or bad one, and so but seldom ridden ; or 
 of being so thorough a slug, that it was next to im- 
 possible to get any exertion out of him. Horses may 
 have, and should have, even after a season's hunting, 
 flesh enough on them to make them look healthy and 
 comfortable in themselves ; but if they have taken 
 their fair turn of hunting days, and have gone well, 
 the shape of their muscle will be pretty strongly de- 
 veloped. If, on the contrary, I ascertained that a 
 horse was one of great powers of speed and endurance^ 
 but had been hunted in a slow country, or by a very 
 slow rider, his looking even fat would be no objec- 
 tion ; on the contrary, it would be a recommendation ; 
 for if, having been thus used and ridden, he was 
 
80 PEOPER COXLITIOIT FOR ALL HORSES. 
 
 only, as regards flesh, at a proper medium, no doubt 
 he would get below such standard in a faster country, 
 and in the hands of a more forward rider. If, on the 
 other hand; I saw a horse lower in flesh than I could 
 wish, I should naturally suspect him being a bad, or, 
 at least, a delicate one ; if, however, I found *he had 
 been badly — that is, unfairly — ridden, or had been 
 hunted oftener during a season than a horse should 
 be, we should have no reason to condemn him, for 
 with fair usage he would most probably get and keep 
 in proper condition. In what I have remarked here, 
 I have alluded to a horse that I suppose to have been 
 shown singly ; if he was one of a stud, the case 
 would be widely different; for here his being in 
 higher or lower condition than his companions must 
 arise from some cause that would be in his favour, 
 or against it. If I saw a stud, and they were all 
 unusually high in flesh, I should feel quite satis- 
 fied they had not come very often during a season ; 
 for it is not probable a man could have got together 
 six or eight horses of unusual hardihood ; if, on the 
 reverse, they were all below the mark, he must be a 
 
THE !IU^'TEK. 81 
 
 very unlucky fellow if he had got the same number 
 all of them bad ones ; so the fair inference, in justice 
 to the horses, would be, they had all been unfairly 
 treated in some particular ; but even in such cases, if 
 one deviated greatly from the others in condition, I 
 would get at the cause, if it was to be ascertained, by 
 appeal to the honour of the owner, the cupidity of the 
 groom, or, what in no few cases would be more to be 
 depended on, the word and opinion of persons who 
 had seen the horses hunted. 
 
 We will conclude that most men wish to see their 
 horses in good condition : some, like myself, are not 
 contented unless their Hunters are (in stable phrase) 
 " fine as stars," and all but fit to race. Positively, 
 if a man would keep Hunters for me at his ex- 
 pense, if they were to be foul in their colts, and soft 
 in themselves, I would not ride them. I might be 
 told, after such assertion, that I am not fond of hunt- 
 ing — not a true sportsman : possibly not ; I am not 
 asserting that I am, or treating the reader with a 
 treatise on the perfectly uninteresting subject of my 
 pretensions or predilections, further than relates to 
 
82 PEOPEE CONDITION POE ALL HOESES. 
 
 the subject in hand, namely, proper condition of 
 Hunters. I fancy I know when they are in such 
 condition, how to get them into such, and how to 
 keep them so ; knowing this, and that without con- 
 dition a good horse becomes what is tantamount to a 
 bad one, I merely, if I cannot ride horses in proper 
 condition, claim the humble privilege of staying at 
 home. I can easily conceive that many men would 
 derive gratification from going to see hounds on a 
 cob ; and if they did this from having grown timid, 
 old, or infirm, or, what is ten times a greater afflic- 
 tion, grown poor, I should applaud and admire tiieir 
 philosophy ; but if a man can, or would, derive plea- 
 sure from attempting to ride to hounds on horses out 
 of condition^ I would hold his taste about on a par 
 with that of a man who could drink two bottles of 
 cape madeira after dinner. 
 
 I have heard many men say they preferred getting, 
 that is purchasing, a Hunter in the spring, as they 
 could then make certain of what his condition would 
 be in autumn. To a certain degree they could — that 
 is, they could make sure he had been properly treated 
 
THE HUNTEE. 83 
 
 for five months ; and if he had been regularly hunted 
 and fkirly used during the last season, somebody 
 would be to blame if by the end of September such 
 horse was not pretty near the mark as to condition ; 
 but if that horse had been soft fed during the fore- 
 going year, I can tell the reader, though five months 
 might, and ought, to make him look weU to the eye, 
 and be in good fi)rm as to carcase and quantum of 
 flesh on him, it will be quite the end of the hunting 
 season before he will be in tip-top condition ; and if a 
 young one, and it is his first season's hunting, he will 
 not then be in the same perfection as he will be after 
 having eighteen months' com in him, his substance 
 will by that time be somewhat like that of the dia- 
 mond, hard to work on, and it wiU be our own faults 
 if we do not bring him up to something like proper 
 polish. Then it is something like pleasure to walk 
 into one's stable, where, if we shut our eyes, the 
 narrow but firm crest of the neck, the springy feel of 
 the muscle, induce a chuckle at the idea of how little 
 pace will be likely to alter that which by pace has 
 
 been brought to its proper standard : then, longing 
 
 g2 
 
84 PROPER COKDITION FOR ALL HORSES. 
 
 to se^ what we feel is perfection, our eyes are gladdened 
 by the sight of blooming coats, that " though varied 
 in colour, in beauty may vie." May those who can 
 truly estimate such things ever enjoy them ! 
 
 It may be asked, is such a state natural to the 
 horse ? Certainly not. Is a London season natural 
 to man ? I conceive not quite ; but he seems to like 
 it pretty well too, and does contrive to keep the game 
 alive, and himself alive ; and if ever a wish springs 
 up that being so may cease, it is only where the 
 ft)rmer has ceased long before. It is habit, not na- 
 ture, that in most things influences the happiness and 
 comforts of living beings in different situations : the 
 fish cannot be happy on laud, or man under the 
 water, simply, or chiefly, because neither can breathe 
 out of their native element; but enable a man to 
 breathe, and put him under water where a ship 
 was sunk laden with a very rich cargo, and he (or 
 I at least) would be very happy, though, having en- 
 riched myself, habit would induce a wish to return 
 to earth ; yet I am not quite sure of that either, if I 
 was forced to leave all the treasure behind me ; for a 
 
TKE HTTNTER. 85 
 
 snug berth under the Pacific, with all the good things 
 of life about one, is better than a berth on earth, if 
 compelled *' to bear the oppressor's wrongs, the proud 
 man's contumely," &c. &c. &c. — But there is no 
 hunting — at least, no fox-hunting — under the Pacific ; 
 a very cogent reason for coming up, if you know 
 you have hunters ^in the condition I have described. 
 " But I have not." Oh, then, dive again, by all 
 means. 
 
 •If a Hunter is purchased of a dealer, the prospect 
 or possibility of his being got into real condition by 
 the time hunting commences, is not to be estimated 
 by his being bought of a dealer, but of what dealer. 
 In judging of such prospect, we have two things to 
 take into consideration : first, is the dealer a man on 
 whose integrity we can rely ? and, secondly, is he 
 one on whose judgment of what is the true condition 
 of a Hunter we can rely ? for I can assure my reader 
 that there are dealers who are no more judges of this 
 than is a hard-riding fox-hunting farmer, who never 
 visits London, a correct judge of the necessary and 
 fashionable qualifications of a lady's park hack ; and 
 
86 PEOPEE CONDITION FOR AXL HOUSES. 
 
 on the score of integrity, dealers vary just as much as 
 do any other men of business, though it should seem, 
 by the following fact, some persons think otherwise. 
 
 I was calling only last week on a friend, whose 
 rank is that of deputy-commissary-general : our con- 
 versation tui'ned on the peculiarities of a mutual 
 friend, a commissary-general : one of these peculi- 
 arities is dabbling in the purchasing and selling 
 horses, and those not quite of the first class. My 
 Mond the deputy-commissary-general reprobated this 
 penchant of his superior officer in words nearly as 
 follows : — " It is most extraordinary his doing this ; 
 it is laying himself open to the charge of being a 
 horse-jockey, and, of course, a rogue." Now, having 
 seen no little of commissaries, both at home and 
 abroad, I could have retorted on my friend, that a 
 man feeling as illiberally towards a class as he did, 
 might insinuate that the same conclusion might be 
 deduced from a man being a commissary. ITow, as I 
 am not saying I have seen roguery in either — or, at 
 all events, am not stating the amount of it — ^my 
 friend will not be offended, I am sure, should he ever 
 
THE HUNTER. 87 
 
 see these sheets, and find me affirm that I never saw 
 more peculation or roguery in dealers' stables, than I 
 have in the department of which he is a very meri- 
 torious member. This is not saying I have seen such 
 in either. 
 
 A merchant, if he ever sees this, may chuckle, and 
 hold it a fair hit at the commissaries : if he should, 
 I might probably quote ^' Quid rides ;" for, as a class, 
 *' de te fabula^^ — ^perhaps he may know the rest. 
 
 In purchasing a Hunter of a dealer, I should most 
 unquestionably go to men most accustomed to deal in 
 such horses, for their judgment would be good : they 
 know what is a Hunter, or a horse likely to make 
 one, and, in accordance with the time of year, have 
 him in about the state he ought to be ; for he may, 
 and probably will, for appearance sake, be a little 
 higher in flesh than might be desirable, and getting 
 this off may retard his being in proper form for a 
 month longer than if he had been in the hands of a 
 stud groom ; but he will '' have that within which 
 passeth show," and will not be — as are most horses 
 sold for carriage work — all blubber without, and fat 
 within. 
 
83 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 Some men like buying four year olds to make into 
 Hunters : such practice is very well for those who 
 like it, and a pretty penny it will be found the one 
 out of three (if you have luck) who turns out superior 
 will cost by the time he is six : but no man, I can 
 conceive, would be visionary enough to expect a four 
 years' old horse to be in proper condition the same 
 season he is purchased in. I may be asked, how, 
 th6n, are two years' old, as Race-horses, in condition? 
 My reply would be, they are not in condition ; they 
 are in a state that enables them to run a short length 
 now and then ; but this is not condition for the horse, 
 though it is for the colt. The three years' old is in 
 condition ; but even he, in point of hardness of con- 
 stitution and muscle, is in greater perfection at four ; 
 he is then all sinew and muscle, and the difficulty of 
 getting a sweat out of him shows the old oats have 
 done their duty ; but we must not compare the fixed- 
 ness (if I may be allowed such term) of the stamina 
 of the colt bred for a Hunter, with that of the one 
 bred for a Eace-horse ; the latter, at four years old, 
 has been eating com for three years and a half, so at 
 
THE HTXTER. 89 
 
 that age he has consumed as much as the ordinary 
 horse has at six ; he had acquired a Hunter's consti- 
 tution by the time the other was first taken from the 
 pasture where he was bred. The racing colt had 
 been com fed, broke, ridden, exercised, worked, 
 sweated, and raced, ere the other knew what a gallop 
 meant, that is, with a man on him. 
 
 The nature of the soil, or rather the herbage that 
 soil on which a colt is bred produces, I conceive goes 
 very far in forwarding or retarding his being got into 
 hunting condition. It is a received opinion, that the 
 being so early com fed produces the large description 
 of Race-horse we see in these days : I am in no way 
 prepared to controvert or disposed to dispute such 
 opinion, though I am not certain it has been incon- 
 trovertibly proved to be the case. That plentiful 
 feeding produces large size, I doubt not ; but I am 
 not clear but that, for mere size, we might produce as 
 large an animal on abundance of rich succulent pas- 
 ture as we do on oats. If a horse is of a large breed, 
 as the Cart-horse, for instance, large he will be, if 
 plentifully fed. and comfortably housed, though only 
 
90 PEOPEH CONDITTOX FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 fed on grass and hay : colts so fed will be big enough, 
 at three years old, for Meux's dray, if they are of a 
 sort bred for such purpose. Possibly a thorough-bred 
 colt might be very large thus fed also, but no Eace- 
 horse would he be. Absence of such pasturage, and j 
 substituting for it the short sweet grass of the pad- 
 dock — and that, of course, in very small quantity in- 
 deed — and, above all, com, brings the racing colt into 
 the natural, or perhaps we may say artificial, form of 
 condition before any other means are adopted to make 
 him still more so. 
 
 Every man used to thorough-bred stock, is quite 
 aware that there are many soils on which it is impos- 
 sible (or, at least, has hitherto been found so) to breed 
 Race-horses. I am quite sure such soils would be 
 very much against the colt designed for a Hunter. I 
 do not mean that it was so against the coarse slow 
 two days a week Hunter of former days, when having 
 (in the then slang stable-phrase) " a good bread- 
 basket" was held as a great recommendation. But 
 the " gun-barrel" instead of the bread-basket carcase 
 is wanting to enable a horse to go nearly steeple-chase 
 
THE HUNTEE. 91 
 
 pace across country ; a horse may be in very good 
 plight as an animal, with a carcase like a Cart-horse, 
 but with such he cannot be in fine condition as a 
 Hunter ; and distended stomach, and bowels, produc- 
 ing a disposition to inactivity and plethora, is a very 
 bad state to keep a colt in, who, as a horse, will require 
 qualifications fbr which such state quite unfits him ; 
 and if such state and habits are those permitted to 
 exist during the first three years of an animal's life, 
 the change to their direct opposites must take great 
 length of time, infinite trouble to ourselves, and in- 
 convenience to the animal. Such mode of rearing 
 might do, and indeed does do very well for the large 
 Carriage-colt, fbr his future work will be quite dif- 
 ferent to that of the Hunter ; but even Carriage- 
 horses are now got into as good form as Hunters were 
 a century ago. 
 
 "We do not find any animals who depend on their 
 speed as their protection, denisens of localities where 
 rich pasturage abounds. The red deer, or stag, crops 
 the brown heather or the scanty blade that grows in 
 its vicinity ; the ibex and chamois pick their food 
 
92 PEOPER CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 from the top or side of the Alps and other moimtaina, 
 and the antelope is only found in an arid soil, pro- 
 ducing but very scant pasturage ; the ox cannot 
 thrive and do well "without bulk as to food. Be it' 
 natural or artificial, the different effects of the dif-i 
 ferent feeding between him and the other animals, I 
 renders their appearance and habits as different to 
 the eye as their size. The large description of superb 
 ox reared in the neighbourhood of Florence, shows 
 enormous bulk and strength. The bison of the 
 prairie, imwieldy as he looks, can, from his more 
 scanty feed and errant habits, exhibit, when he pleases, 
 considerable powers of speed. If then, in a wild 
 state, repletion produces indolent habits, and mode- 
 ration active ones, I conceive each has a similar effect 
 on the animal in a domestic one. 
 
 I should always wish to see horses, most particu- 
 larly very yoimg ones, on going into work, have in 
 (stable terms) "a, good bit on them," that is a good 
 bit of firm sound muscle. But bulk and fat produce 
 no stamina while on or in, but a great deal of trouble 
 to get rid of, and neither should be permitted to ac- 
 
THE HIOTTEE. 93 
 
 3umiilate on any animal in youth, that we intend for 
 fast work when brought into use. Of the two, I 
 would rather purchase a colt shewing indications of 
 Qot having had sufficient food, than one convinc- 
 ing me he had been permitted and accustomed to 
 ^orge himself ; an inordinate appetite is to be acquired, 
 md colts or horses accustomed to quantity are hard 
 to be brought to be satisfied without it, and we all 
 know that the greatest possible amount of nourish- 
 ment in the least possible bulk, is the great promoter 
 5f proper condition in Hunters. I consider that no 
 mimal will thrive in a dissatisfied state. If, therefore, 
 I horse, like some men, has so indulged an inordinate 
 appetite, that he is never satisfied till he feels his 
 belly full, as such to the extent such gluttons would 
 wish, cannot be allowed in a progressive state towards 
 condition, or after it is attained, it shews that this, 
 among other reasons, is one why, as I have ventured 
 to state, we cannot breed a Eace-horse on rich pasture, 
 and why a Hunter should not be bred on such. 
 
 As I before said, going in distress, or going at ease, 
 makes all the difference in a horse keeping up his 
 
94 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 condition. "Wliatever exertion an animal is unaccus- 
 tomed to, he will feel more irksome than will the one 
 habituated to it, and it will generally be found thai 
 in changing the exertion to which a horse has beoD 
 accustomed, to such as he has not, he will, more oi 
 less, fall off in condition, imless the change be U 
 exertion less severe than the former ; and even thei 
 he will not at first derive the advantage from th« 
 change that we might expect. For instance, carrying 
 sacks of coal from a barge to a wharf, is much severe: 
 labour than walking without such load ; yet many j 
 man who does the former for hours together, woul< 
 be tired if we made him perform the very trifling fea 
 of walking five miles under the hour, though h 
 merely carried a pair of walking short-drawers weigh 
 ing two ounces. The regular pedestrian, ho wove 
 strong he might be, would be equally distressed in 
 carrying the coals for the same time ; neither woul« 
 keep their condition in such exertion as they wen 
 unaccustomed to. Aware 06 this, if I wanted ; 
 Hunter for a very hiUy country, 1 should very greath 
 prefer one bred in one. He gets accustomed t( 
 
THE HTJKTEB. 95 
 
 "hills even as a foal, and will go both up and dovrn 
 with ease and safety, when the horse bred on a flat 
 can do neither ; he would be alarmed in going down 
 and tired in going up, and under such influence con- 
 dition would certainly suff'er. And, on the contrary, 
 a horse having got into the short and collected stroke 
 necessary to get up hill, and the pottering kind of 
 gait that ensures safety in going down, would, till 
 accustomed to the change, soon shut up, if forced to 
 extend himself over a fast flat country ; the difi'erent 
 mode of fencing would distress him, even supposing 
 he could accomplish it. In hilly countries great care 
 is necessary on the part of the horse ; going up hiU, 
 he cannot clear large leaps in a swing — ^he must in 
 some way '^ dog them." In going down hill he must 
 make a one, two, or one, two, three of it, for if he 
 should land with much impetus, he would probably 
 roU headlong down the declivity ; such a horse would 
 soon be exhausted by flying nearly every fence he came 
 to. He would clear a ditch and bank, or bank and 
 double ditch, in any country in his country way, which 
 would be by jumping on the bank, taking a look it 
 
PEOPER COXDITIO.V FOE ALL HOKSES. 
 
 1 
 
 the fine prospect before him, and then jumping off 
 again ; this mode would, however, give us a very bad 
 prospect of keeping a place with fast hounds in a fast 
 country. Thus each horse does well in his own 
 — does well fbr his master as a Hunter, and well for 
 himself as to condition. Change their country, and 
 fbr a considerable time neither would do either. 
 
 I have been induced to write on the proper condi- 
 tion of horses for different purposes at the request of 
 friends, some of whom declared candidly they could 
 not get their horses, or some of them, in condition; my 
 object, therefore, is to show tLat such friends need not 
 in all cases blame their own stable management or 
 that of their grooms, as sometimes causes exist that 
 they neither know of, or think of, that militate against 
 their horses being in the proper condition they wish ; 
 at least, I have found such to be the case. 
 
 In writing anything on the subject of field sports, 
 or horses, I venture my own ideas and opinions, 
 founded on practice ; I do not consult the written 
 authority of any one, so, of course, do not expect or 
 intend what I say to be taken in that light. I am 
 
THE HIIS'TEIL 97 
 
 quite aware I could get much information from the 
 writings of those better informed than myself ; but 
 if I did, and promulgated such information, I should 
 be only at best retailing to my readers what has been 
 said in better language by others. If m any thing I 
 say, it is found that men conversant with such subjects 
 agree with me, I may, in such cases, presume I am 
 right ; where men of ability, with as much practice 
 and experience as myself, differ from me, I can have 
 no doubt I am wrong. If they have not that prac- 
 tice and experience, a glimpse of hope remains, that 
 from that circumstance I may be nearly right still. 
 
 Having mentioned circumstances that do not always 
 strike a purchaser, as militating against a horse 
 readily getting into condition, or keeping so, if he 
 has attained such proper state, I will suppose one 
 to have been bought that does not labour under any 
 drawback of the kinds I have mentioned, and will 
 suppose him of a fair age, not less than six, if in- 
 tended to be regularly hunted with fox-hounds the 
 same season he is purchased. If he was hunted last 
 season, and has been indulged in his box from tht^ 
 
98 PROPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 day he saw his last fox killed — the first week in April 
 — ^he will be, or ought to be, somewhat high in flesh ; 
 we will suppose ourselves to be in the last week in 
 July, om' horse not having been grass fed, but merely 
 having had green food enough during the summer to 
 act as a natural alterative. We have not, as formerly 
 was the case, to set about cleansing his inside, as a 
 kind of Augean stable. What he chiefly wants is 
 being got in form and in wind : he has had com 
 enough to keep his stamina good, and his flesh tolera- 
 bly firm, and we only want to increase his allowance 
 of oats, to meet the exercise and work he must get, 
 to bring him up to hunting mark. We commence by 
 mashing him for twenty-four hours, which, supposing 
 him to have had soft green food, will well prepare him 
 for his fijst dose of physic ; if his constitution is of a 
 medium character, the quantity, that is the strength 
 of the physic, must be regulated by what we know or 
 guess will be its eff'ects. Six and a half drachms I 
 have usually found enough (though a groom rarely 
 thinks so) ; in giving a second dose, he wiU certainly 
 require longer mashing, and probably stronger physic. 
 
THE HITNTEE. 99 
 
 Wliether a third should be given a week after the 
 second, or kept to be given afterwards, depends on the 
 visible effect of the two doses ; formerly, aU Hunters 
 got their three doses in succession, nor was thus 
 treating them quite as preposterous as some persons 
 may suppose, for in those days, whether the horses 
 were fat or thin, they were all grass-fed alike ; and 
 if the physic was judiciously given, so as to operate 
 on each horse properly, and only properly, it would 
 probably require as many doses to clear the stomach 
 of the abomination it contained in the thumer horse as 
 in the fat one ; and even in those days, though grooms, 
 after the hunting season was over, were in a great 
 hurry to get grass into a horse, they knew well enough, 
 ere another began, the sooner they got it out of him 
 again the better ; shewing the grass system to be a 
 system about as sensible, and to be commended, as 
 would be a man, instead of taking his pint of sherry, 
 swallowing two pots of porter, and then taking an 
 emetic to rid himself of the inward nuisance. We 
 now give physic, not as a primary step to get rid 
 of what is within as regards food, but what is with- 
 
 H 2 
 
100 PEOPES CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 out and within as regards :^t ; and holding very 
 properly this to be a better mode of doing so, 
 than submitting a horse to exertion, with a body 
 and fulness of habit that would, in the first case, be 
 detrimental to his legs, and in the second to his 
 lungs and constitution. "We know inflammation to 
 have a leading tendency in the constitution of horses 
 artificially fed ; and physic hefore inflammation com- 
 mences is the best safeguard, though in many cases 
 all but certain death, when it has seized the unhappy 
 sufferer. 
 
 Grooms, in former times, said they gave physic to 
 make " the fat 'uns thin, and the thin 'uns fat ;" and 
 they were not far out either, absurd as the idea 
 might appear ; for physic really did this, by getting 
 that out of one animal on which he had got fat, and 
 that out of the other on which he had got thin ; a 
 tolerably cogent reason, I should say, for not placing 
 horses in a situation where they must all fare alike, 
 and for keeping them where we can make the fare 
 and treatment such as suits the constitution of each 
 under our care ; and this can only be done by their 
 
THE HXWTEE. 101 
 
 being corn-fed and hand-fed. WMle we have them 
 in this state, if we cannot keep them in proper condi- 
 tion, as resting-horses or working ones, by proper 
 feeding, stabling, grooming, physic, tonics and alte- 
 ratives, either we are unfit to keep Hunters, or such 
 Hunters are unfit to be kept. 
 
 There are unquestionably two sorts of fine condition ; 
 that is, fine condition to look at, and fine condition to 
 go ; for instance, we will suppose twenty horses of a 
 first-rate hunt coming to Tattersalls' for sale, very 
 late in May or early in June ; they have aU been 
 bottled from early in April. Six weeks' rest to horses 
 aocustomed to constant work does wonders, and the 
 stud groom must be a bad one if in that time he 
 cannot get them all in such form as to look well, and, 
 long com fed as they have been, to feel well also. 
 Doubtless in fine condition such horses would be to 
 look at, and not absolutely in bad condition to go, but 
 certainly not to go as they could six weeks before, 
 though, perhaps, among the number some might have 
 then been a little "pen-feathered," others a little 
 light in flesh, and others not as playful as they would 
 
102 PROPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 show wlieii listening to *' The last time, for a hun- 
 dred-and-fiffcy," bang goes the old spliced-banded, 
 cross-banded, and transversely-banded hammer, back 
 starts the horse. " Take care, he'll kill some of ye," 
 cries a well-known voice. ** Up," brings on another 
 lot, the coming and going horses neigh a recognition, 
 little thinking it a last adieu. " Sic transit gloria 
 murdiy^ sigh I, and "5«c transit,''^ the stud. 
 
 Supposing horses to have got through such physic 
 as each may require, by the end of the first week in 
 August, we must be sad stablemen indeed if, by the 
 first of October, our horses are not fit to go any where, 
 that is in any country, so far as condition is con- 
 cerned. 
 
 As I am not now writing directions or advice on 
 mere stable management, but a general comprehension 
 of condition, — what militates against it, and what 
 brings it to perfection, — ^I shall treat on these matters 
 in a general way as they affect the horse, leaving the 
 minutisB and common-place parts of the groom's mode 
 of conducting such to himself. 
 
 Horses having gone through their physic, begin a 
 
THE Kins^TEE. 103 
 
 regnlar course of walking exercise. On the subject 
 of this preparatory exercise, I perhaps differ a little 
 from some persons. I am no advocate for it as a 
 mode of reducing superabundant flesh, and for this 
 reason, I dislike all kind of exercise for the horse 
 that jades him, makes him listless, or tires him by its 
 monotony. I consider walking exercise, to the extent 
 many persons carry it mth their horses, produces the 
 three evils I have mentioned, and many others : the 
 chief advantage of walking exercise I hold to be 
 keeping the horse in the open air ; it also quiets very 
 hasty and fidgetty horses, and brings the delicate ones 
 to their appetite ; but we might walk a strong-con- 
 stitutioned one till he was as dispirited as an over- 
 worked ass, before we should reduce firm corn-grown 
 flesh on him. 
 
 Every trainer of pedestrians would, I know, be at 
 once in arms against the little stress I lay on walking 
 exercise ; and possibly, if I was a fat man, would say, 
 " I wish I had you in my hands ; I would show you 
 the effect of walking exercise in reducing flesh." 
 Much obliged ; but, in the first place, I have been at 
 
104 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 such fim often enough, and know what it is as well 
 as you ; secondly, I am a thin man ; and, thirdly, J 
 am not a horse, however close I may come to a near 
 representative of his. 
 
 Kow the trainer aUuded to is quite right as to the 
 effect of walking exercise on a man, and I like reason- 
 ing on analogy ; but in this particular there is very 
 little between man and horse; and from a cause 
 that may not strike him, which is this ; we will say 
 a fair walker, as a horse, kept up to his pace, can 
 walk four inilea in the hour : aU the fbrciug we could 
 use with him would not get the same horse to do 
 another half mile in the hour ; if hit, he would break 
 into a trot. The walk of a horse on the road is a 
 uniform pace, and he would not, perhaps, vary five 
 minutes, as to time, in doing his four miles on a level 
 road, if we tried him ten different hours : we cannot 
 force him into strong exertion in a walk ; we can a 
 man, as much so as in miming. As an instance of 
 this, we will take Charles "Westhall, the walker and 
 runner : supposing him to be taking a walk for hia 
 amusement, or to see a friend at Tumham Green, he 
 
THE imXTEE. 105 
 
 would probably, being at his leisure, walk at a rate 
 of from four to four miles and a half per hour ; but if 
 he chose it, he could do the four miles, and leave 
 himself time to take a glass of wine and water, 
 leisurely under thirty minutes. He in training can be 
 made to walk at a pace that renders it the severest of 
 all exertion : we could not make his contemporary 
 flyer, Yoltigeur, do this — that is, not walk till the 
 pace produced strong exertion, or at all acted on the 
 wind, unless we walked him up the Devil's Dyke. 
 We cannot make a sound horse blow in his walk ; 
 his properties in that pace do not enable him to do so 
 — or, at all events, he won't — I believe could not ; 
 for, however he may beat man in stride by galloping, 
 while the other runs, man can beat the horse all to 
 nothing in stride in his walk. 
 
 I know of but three healthful modes by which we 
 can get flesh off a horse — namely, physic, strong 
 exercise, and sweating : now we cannot make a horse 
 take strong exercise in walking on level ground, with 
 a light weight on him — we can only make him leg 
 weary. There is a way by which we may reduce 
 
106 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 flesh by walkiiig, I admit, — and where legs are in a 
 very doubtftd state it is very well to resort to it, — 
 this is by very heating clothing ; but if the legs of a 
 Hunter were so bad as to render this iadispensable, I 
 should scarcely think it worth the trouble to get him 
 into hunting condition ; and his legs must be very 
 bad indeed if they cannot stand a gentle trot on proper 
 ground; — a kind of exercise that, with moderate 
 clothing, I greatly prefer, to crawling a horse about 
 under a feather bed, or something like it. "We all 
 know that sweating, by whatever mode it is brought 
 about, reduces flesh ; but by increased pace, sweat or 
 not, we get increased action of the lungs, and this 
 conduces to clear the wind. 
 
 In preliminary exercise, I much prefer the mode- 
 rate trot to the canter, for these reasons : hasty horses 
 are not so much excited by it, so go more quietly ; it 
 accustoms horses to go safely and pleasantly in that 
 pace — a great desideratum in a Hunter ; and as can- 
 tering and galloping always distresses one fore leg 
 more than the other, I think it good economy in 
 legs, when galloping is not necessary, to give each 
 
THE nrxTEE. 107 
 
 l;g a fair share of work, — and this it gets in the 
 trot. 
 
 "We have now, we will say, had a stud of Hunters 
 at walking, trotting, and occasional cantering, or very 
 slow galloping exercise, for a month ; we must now 
 increase our pace, and think of sweating them : the 
 groom looks his horses carefully over; one or two 
 particularly strong-constitutioned ones, though they 
 may have had three doses of physic, may be so little 
 affected by that and the moderate exercise they have 
 had, that before they are put to work in earnest, even 
 a fourth dose may be wanted ; those that had but 
 two may want a third, and all of them, more or less, 
 will be benefitted by moderate alteratives, prior to 
 the time their coats begin to shift. Of these I have 
 found antimony the best : in many cases I have given 
 arsenic, increasing the quantity every second day, for 
 ten days or a fortnight ; but in such cases I would 
 recommend others, if unaccustomed to its use, to con- 
 sult a veterinary surgeon — for it is not a medicine 
 to be played with. Some horses, on first coming 
 into work, will show little excrescent pimples on the 
 
108 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 skin — these are usually of no consequence, and will 
 go away of themselves — some, nay, many, grooms 
 immediately fly to the nitre bottle, a most favourite 
 medicine with most of them ; I in most cases 
 greatly dislike it, as I do quantities of vetches in 
 summer : if a man wishes to thoroughly debilitate a 
 horse, let him give plenty of both — he wiU shortly 
 be weak enough to please any body. 
 
 Physic, exercise, trotting, gentle gallops, and alte- 
 ratives, must now have prepared horses for a sweat ; 
 this at first must be very slow as to pace, and the 
 horse clothed up, both in accordance with the tem- 
 perature of the weather and as to what we have 
 seen of his readiness, or the reverse, to sweat ; the 
 length he goes should be regulated by seeing when 
 he appears to sweat sufficiently, this the groom will 
 see by riding up to the horse while going ; as a general 
 rule, the best I can give is, when the water trickles 
 down his arms towards his knees he will scrape well, 
 and here let me caution persons unacquainted with 
 sweating horses against a very mistaken notion they 
 may entertain, which is, that some horses only re- 
 
THE HTTNTEE. 109 
 
 quire a ''gentle sweat;" this is true, but a gentle 
 sweat does not mean, as some might imagine, a half 
 sweat ; every horse that should be sweated at all, 
 should be sweated profusely ; a gentle sweat means 
 the pace should be comparatively gentle, and that 
 sweating should not be prolonged or encouraged after 
 the horse will scrape well ; the wet should run m a 
 comparative stream before the scraper; losing this 
 impure fluid opens the pores of the skin, and prevents 
 ni effects from the exertion the horse has gone 
 through ; if we do not get this from him, all that 
 would be got by a half-sweat would be, the blood 
 would have been heated to fever height, and the impure 
 juices we want to get rid of would have come to hot 
 water pitch, and then have dried again into the body : 
 the next morning the half-sweated animal's mouth 
 would be and feel hot and dry as a lime-kibi ; and if 
 fever does not follow, some one must prevent it who 
 is a better groom than the advocate for half sweating. 
 The number of sweats, the severity of them, and 
 the days of interval, a good groom will decide on by 
 the constitution, the form, and general attributes of 
 
110 PROPER CONDITION FOR ALL HORSES. 
 
 his different horses. Hunters do not require usually 
 near the same number of sweats as does the Eace- 
 horse ; for in the first place, hunting condition, though 
 it should approach it, is not required to be ra- 
 cing condition. As something like a clue as to the 
 frequency of sweats in a Hunter, I should say if he is, 
 in racing phrase, ^' doing good work," eight daj's 
 between his'^weats is about a fair average ; but it must 
 be borne in mind that the pace, length, and clothing 
 required to sweat a horse, when come to his height 
 of condition, must be very much increased from what 
 was done when we got a kind of dirty half glutinous 
 frothy impurity instead of, as now, all but clear water 
 out of him. 
 
 As regards sweating, the case is quite reversed 
 between Hunters and Race-horses : with the latter 
 " the old 'uns " require by far the most sweating, for 
 two reasons; in the first place their flesh is more 
 hardened on their bodies, consequently more difficult 
 to get off than is that of the younger horses ; secondly, 
 they have to go longer lengths and carry greater weight, 
 so they must have as little of their own to carry as 
 
THE HTTNTEE. Ill 
 
 possible ; and it is to be recollected, as stated when on 
 the subject of Race-horses, " the old 'uns " are only- 
 four or five years old, consequently they have all the 
 juices of youth still in their bodies. Now with Hun- 
 ters it is not so ; what a hunting groom calls a baby 
 as a Hunter, is an " old 'un " in a racing stable ; and 
 horses considered in their prime, say eight, nine, or 
 ten years old, as Hunters, are sires as Race-horses, 
 and many a horse is going as well as ever he did 
 across country, whose contemporary in age, as a Race- 
 horse, has arrived at the honour of being a grandsire. 
 In men it is usual, as they grow older, that they 
 increase or diminish in weight ; this, however, I have 
 observed, is only the case with such as merely take 
 common exercise ; but I have rarely observed a hard- 
 working day labourer who did not exhibit a spare 
 habit in age ; it is so with horses. A pony that had 
 carried a Vicar of Wakefield, and grown old with his 
 master, would probably grow fat as age induced him, 
 and he might be allowed, to leave off" habits tending to 
 make him otherwise ; but I do not recollect to have 
 seen an old Hunter, in hunting condition, in a regu- 
 
112 PEOPEE COXDinOX FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 lax fox-hunting stud, that was not more or less spare 
 in form. Consequently, such a horse merely requires 
 a sweat or two to clear his skin of impurities on and 
 under it ; with such a horse the sweat should be got 
 out of him as quickly as possible by warm clothing, 
 and not prolonged exertion, as the last would tend to 
 reduce what flesh he has on him, and of which he 
 has none to spare ; for this I can tell my reader, 
 though young and aged horses will often throw up 
 flesh faster than we may wish, if we once get an 
 old horse below himself in flesh, it will be found a 
 work of time to get him up again, and the chances 
 are very much against it ever being done — and rarely 
 indeed if he is kept at work. Old horses, like old 
 men, that are used to it, will stand a good deal of 
 hammering, if we keep the steam up in them, but if 
 we let that down, the machinery stops, the impetus is 
 lost, and they come to a stand- still. 
 
 It used to be the system to let horses work them- 
 selves into the best form with hounds. What was the 
 consequence of this ? horses were going for two or three 
 months when not in condition to go, and one day's 
 
THE HUNTEK. 113 
 
 hunting in such state does or did what it took con- 
 siderable time to undo, or rather undid what it took 
 perhaps a month to set to rights. 
 
 Get a horse in what condition we may, though he 
 may be fit to run for a plate, we cannot get Hunters 
 to be as fit to get through a long run at the beginning 
 of' the season as they will be afterwards — they are not 
 accustomed to such lengthened exertion ; the least 
 therefore we can do is to biiug them to a state of 
 vrmd and stamina that they can go a burst with ease ; 
 for if they are distressed by the first quarter of an 
 hour, I should anticipate but little pleasui'e in riding 
 them afterwards. I do not mean that because a horse 
 may from any cause be a little blown that he will 
 not recover from that, a few minutes more or less, in 
 accordance with his condition, will enable him to do 
 so ; but if his condition be such as to have caused 
 him to be distressed, it will take days to recover from 
 the effects of it. Such, I conceive my reader will 
 agree with me in thinking, is not the proper con- 
 dition of Hunters. I have endeavoured to shew 
 what is — have pointed out what is likely to promote 
 
114 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 or impede their being brought to such state. I have 
 supplied the raw material — ^have shewn the general 
 mode by which it may be worked into an article to 
 meet the wishes of those who intend to use it. I 
 have shewn, or attempted to shew, that without 
 being wrought up to a certain pitch of perfection, it 
 is all but valueless : the proper workman to bring it 
 to this must be found by those possessing the material 
 in its crude state ; I am writing information for, 
 figurately speaking, the importer, not instructions for 
 the artisan ; that has been written by others. 
 
 But in less figurative terms, to return to Hunters : 
 it is quite clear that to bring them to the state Hunters 
 should be in, master or man must understand how to 
 do this. A master with good strappers if the first 
 knows what he is about will do ; if not, a good stud 
 groom will do ; or where only three or four horses 
 are kept, a good intelligent man will do the same 
 thing, perhaps well enough for ordinary men and 
 purposes ; Men, of whom there are many now who 
 keep but one horse and no groom, have but one al- 
 ternative that I know of, which is to send their horse 
 
TnE HrXTER. 115 
 
 to the best hunting livery- stable they can find. I am. 
 not authorized to offer advice as to any man's proce- 
 dure in his amusement, but if I kept one horse, I 
 might be allowed to give advice to myself, and it 
 would be in two words, " don't hunt." 
 
 We will now throw aside canters, gallops, strong 
 work, sweating, sweaters, boots, muzzles, scrapes, 
 ^^ et hoc genus omnes,^^ that we require as accessories 
 to condition in. racing and hunting stables. The 
 boots we will not have, in technical phrase, " at any 
 price ;" for the kind of horses we shall not look at 
 would be quite unfit for their several purposes, if they 
 required them. The muzzle we trust we shall not 
 want to prevent their eating us ; and it will rarely 
 be wanted to prevent their eating what is proper for 
 them — but the condition we must have. For as I 
 have somewhere seen dogs classed as " Puppy, Mon- 
 grel, Whelp, or Hound, and Curs of low degree," so 
 the horse, as Racer, Hunter, Ladies' Horse, Hack, 
 Harness-horse, Costermonger's or Cart-horse, all are 
 raised in price, looks, and utility by condition ; each 
 has his proper condition, and if not in such state, 
 
 i2 
 
116 PE0PE2 CONDITIOX FOE AXL HORSES. 
 
 labours under disadvantage both to himself and 
 owner. It "will not, of course, be inferred from my 
 saying this, that I mean they need all to be in the 
 same condition ; but each should be in such state as 
 to enable bim to do his allotted task without being 
 distressed by it. I will now take up 
 
 THE LADIES' HOESE. 
 
 To be more explicit, I mean the Ladies* riding 
 horse, and now-a-days such horses comprise a con- 
 siderable number of those in use. I have ever con- 
 sidered that of all the horses in use, without any 
 exception, the horse a lady rides is the one that calls 
 for our most scrupulous attention, both as to his ap- 
 pearance and attributes. Ladies do not want the 
 same qualifications in their horses men do ; they do 
 not want extraordinary speed, uncommon endurance, 
 or wonderful powers of any sort ; at least, no lady 
 does who entertains the very laudable wish of being 
 more, or at all events as much, admired for her higher 
 attributes as she is for her qualities as a horsewoman. 
 If, therefore, a man is seen by the cover side, or any 
 
THE ladies' HOESE. 117 
 
 where else, on a very plain horse, he is quite excused 
 (nay, shows his sense) if sacrificing looks to uncom- 
 mon qualifications. He may, for the same reason, 
 ride a vicious, restive, unpleasant, or even unsafe horse ; 
 but as easily acquired qualities are only wanted for a 
 lady's use, it really shows either a niggardly disposi- 
 tion, want of knowledge, want of attention to her 
 comfort, and proper appreciation of the value of 
 woman, where a lady is permitted to ride a horse 
 not in every way suited to the light task he is usually 
 called on to perform. Beauty, the finest condition, 
 perfect good temper, graceftd action, a fine mouth, 
 and, of course, indisputably safe going, is aU that is 
 wanted; he might, for any purpose where great 
 performance is required, be perfectly worthless; it 
 would be no recommendation to him that he could do, 
 or had done, fifty miles in three hours and a half, 
 when no lady, at least no gentlewoman, would permit 
 such a trial of him to be made, much less would she 
 participate in any such feat. If a man complained 
 to me he had a horse that was not worth a farthing 
 as a Hunter, or even as a Road-horse, to go any dis- 
 
118 PEOPEE COXDITIOX FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 tance, my questions would be, is lie handsome ? would 
 he carry a woman ? If, on the contrary, a horse had 
 been bought ft)r a lady, but proved restive and vicious, 
 I should ask, is he reaUy a good one ? if so, I should 
 say, ''I'll buy him, I dare say he'U carry me, or 
 some other man." 
 
 Why I know not, but in the early part of Hiis 
 year I saw more awkward goers, and those in very 
 middling condition, under ladies in the park, than I 
 ever remember to have seen in any preceding season ; 
 and yet no horse should be in proper condition more 
 than one to carry a woman ; — he should be so for 
 appearance sake, otherwise the lady looks like a gem 
 in a tasteless and common setting ; nor do we wish 
 her to look as if she harassed or starved her horse 
 to death : he should be in high condition to induce 
 him to do his work pleasantly, cheerfully, and safely, 
 neither of which wiU he do if in a dispirited state. 
 
 A really good goer wiU certainly go well, whether 
 in condition or not ; but there is a wonderful diffe- 
 rence between the quick, cheerful, and elastic step 
 of a horse in perfect health and spirits, and the same 
 
THE ladies' HOESE. 119 
 
 horse if either in under condition, or in a state of 
 fatness that makes exertion irksome to him : the 
 want of readiness, and elasticity of action, brings 
 more horses on their nose or knees, than all the 
 stones or inequalities of the worst roads. It mat- 
 ters not whether the want arises from general bad 
 condition, or fatigue, at the time being ; where and 
 while it exists, the horse will not go with perfect 
 safety : we may keep as vigilant an eye on the road 
 we ride over as we please — may have as good hands 
 as ever felt a horse's mouth — unless he has the will 
 and the power to go safely, and, in case of a mistake 
 or blunder, to prevent himself falling, all our efforts 
 would amount to nothing, as regards preventing the 
 catastrophe ; condition is not merely wanted in the 
 horse to cause him to look well, or be capable of 
 great performance, but it is really wanted to insure 
 or at least promote safety. 
 
 It may be objected that high condition may 
 cause a horse to be troublesome to a lady to ride ; if a 
 horse is thus troublesome, he is either not in proper 
 condition for her use, or is not a proper horse for her 
 
120 PROPER COin)ITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 to ride. It is not necessary for a ride in the park, 
 or an airing any where else, that a horse should get 
 his five or six feeds of com a day ; he will look just 
 as well, and be in quite proper condition for such 
 exercise (for work it is not), on three; but if a 
 horse's temper or temperament is such that he will 
 not bear Ceding enough to keep bim in looks and 
 stamina, in proper state, without being violent or 
 disagreeably hasty, he is not fit for a woman. He 
 may be a very valuable horse for purposes where he 
 must get high feeding and hard work, and probably 
 would be so ; many horses'* spirit is so high they 
 cannot bear idleness, or rather the absence of work 
 to keep them down ; very valuable such qualification 
 is, but not in a lady's horse. He would be one 
 among the many horses who are not in condition, 
 ft-om not being suited to their purpose ; such a horse 
 must be under-fed to keep him under ; what then 
 would be the consequence, though he might have 
 sufficient spirit left? the want of proper feeding 
 would cause him to sweat in a mere canter up Rotten 
 How ; by such treatment his tewper would (figura- 
 
THE LADIES HOESE. 121 
 
 tively speaking) be in condition, but his stamina 
 sadly out of it ; he would, in feet, be a good horse 
 thi'own away on a purpose for which another, 
 perhaps very bad one, would be quite what was 
 wanted. 
 
 But though I consider what, in speaking of horses' 
 qualities, we call a "bad-hearted one" — in other 
 words, a regular '^ cur" — when called on for severe 
 exertion, is quite good enough for a Lady's Park 
 Hack; should a lady hunt, it is quite a different 
 affair : here she not only requires a good horse, but a 
 very good one. Not that ladies ride as hard as men, 
 nor will we suppose a lady would persevere with her 
 horse one minute after she found he ceased to go with 
 ease to himself; but a horse with a woman on his 
 back should always be at his ease ; and to be this, 
 even with their more moderate treatment, a horse 
 must be a good one; for in a very moderate run, 
 though a horse may not really go in distress, he must 
 be a very good one to feel quite above himself, or 
 rather his work, during the whole of its continuance ; 
 this, however, he may be, with a lady's riding, if he 
 
122 PROPER CONDITION POR ALL HORSES. 
 
 is a superior horse — but not unless he is so. A man 
 may, by greater nerve, greater strength, and less 
 leeHng, drive a half-beaten horse through or over his 
 fences, during the latter part of a run, but a lady 
 cannot do this, nor would I suspect her of attempting 
 it ; so, to prevent it being called for, a woman's 
 Hunter must be exceedingly clever, exceedingly good, 
 and, above all, in tip-top condition. Men, with all 
 their knowledge of country, of hunting, and horses, 
 and with all their nerve and strength, are often 
 obliged to get their horse along as they can, and think 
 themselves well off if he does it " any how ;" but 
 this would not do in the case of a lady. We, as men, 
 laugh if we see one or the other get a purl ; but we 
 shudder at the bare idea of a woman getting a fall : 
 her horse must, in great measure, take care of him- 
 self, and in so doing so, of his rider also ; this he can 
 and will do while fresh, but no longer. If, therefore, 
 we are particular in having our Hunters in first-rate 
 wind and condition, in order to keep in the foremost 
 rank, we must be quite as particular in that of the 
 Lady's horse, to enable him, with her riding, not to 
 
TEE L.U)IES' HOESE. 123 
 
 feci any thing bordering on distress — ^for_ on this her 
 safety depends. 
 
 There is a vast difference between high temper and 
 high courage in horses : by high temper I do not 
 mean a bad one, but a temper easily roused to a state 
 of excitement ; and a horse possessing such is a most 
 improper one for a lady, and for this reason — to keep 
 down his temper we must reduce his courage ; and if 
 we do, we spoil him. If he is merely high-couraged, 
 and has a placid temper, high feeding will only affect 
 his stamina, and that in a desirable way : his temper 
 wiU be just as placid in high condition as in low ; 
 his spirits may be more exuberant in the one case 
 than the other, and he may be somewhat playful ; 
 but any little playfulness arising from mere animal 
 spirits is quite different from the impatience or irri- 
 tability arising from high temper : the effect of the 
 one is perhaps a jump or gambol, and it is over ; but 
 we can scarcely tell what, or where, the effects of a 
 high temper, if excited, may lead to. The horse with a 
 high temper is, perhaps, as easily subdued by fatigue as 
 any other ; the high-couraged horse is not : the placid 
 
124 PEOPEB CONDITIOIir FOB ALL H0ESE9. 
 
 temper is no more to be roused by trifles than is the 
 high courage to be subdued by occasions or causes 
 where such courage is wanted ; and such are the de- 
 sirable attributes of a Lady's horse. We can keep 
 him up to a state that enables him to bring all his 
 powers into use, and yet feel perfect confidence in the 
 equanimity of his temper ; in short, whatever may be 
 the exertion we require of him, we can always ven- 
 ture to have him in the state I hold aU horses should 
 be — ^namely, not only equal to, but somewhat above 
 their work : if they are not, I do not call them in 
 proper condition. 
 
 THE HACK. 
 
 Not to go too far back in point of dates, the Hack 
 of 1800 and the one of 1852 are as different as two 
 animals can well be, both being used for saddle pur- 
 poses on the road; or rather as not being animals used 
 for racing, hunting, or military purposes; for, in 
 point of fact, road riding we have none at the present 
 day. No horse living required higher condition for 
 his work than did the Hack of the last century ; for 
 
THE HACK. 125 
 
 no horse was exposed to more fatigue than were 
 Hacks in those days ; and far more indomitable cou- 
 rage was called for in the Hack than in the Eacer or 
 Hunter. The latter have both of them much excite- 
 ment to keep their courage alive ; but nothing but 
 sheer game, and high condition, could enable the 
 Hack to keep up his spiiit, and carry as safely in a 
 journey of sixty miles, with nothing to encourage 
 or cheer him in his solitary labour. But the regular 
 Koad Hack, like the Road Coach, is no more ; and 
 the Hack of the present day, instead of having severer 
 duties than most other horses to perform, leads now a 
 life of mere exercise ; consequently, any thing that is 
 pretty, has showy action, and is safe and quiet, is 
 good enough for the Hack. The chief attention, 
 therefore, that he requires, as regards condition, is 
 just to keep him in health, and in that state, as re- 
 gards flesh, that sets him off to the greatest advantage 
 in. point of appearance. 
 We now turn our attention to 
 

 128 PEOPER COTQDITIOJr POE ALL HOESES. 
 
 THE CAEEIAGE-HOESE. 
 
 A somewliat indefinite description of an animal I 
 must allow this would be, to a man wlio had not, 
 from observation and habit, learned to comprehend at 
 once the description of horse alluded to by such defi- 
 nition ; for, no doubt, every or any horse drawing a 
 carriage might be called a Carriage Horse ; and as a 
 carriage is a wheeled vehicle to carry persons, it is 
 only habit that at once brings before our recognition 
 the particular animal I allude to. Yet the sqrt of 
 animal, though at once recognised by the term, and 
 familiar to our sight in 1852, and during the pre- 
 ceding years of the present century, is no more like 
 the one used in and before 1 700, than was the light, 
 nearly thorough-bred, team of a fast coach like the 
 old lot that used to draw the road vehicles that break- 
 fasted at Hounslow, dined at Eeading, and supped — 
 and, indeed, remained for the night — at Newbury, 
 the passengers hoping that, God willing, they should 
 be in Bath the next night. I have heard even my 
 father call it all but wonderftd that a man could j)08i' 
 
THE CAEEIAGE-HOESE. 127 
 
 tively take an early breakfast in London, and supper 
 in the good town of Water-cure. I remember tbe 
 Englefield coach leaving at six, and arriving in Lou- 
 don at nine, about nineteen miles ; very well horsed 
 this same coach was for its pace, the team being about 
 on a par with some of the best Tilbury now sends 
 about London in his vans. I quite reme:nber being 
 on the box on one occasion, when behind I and the 
 coachman sat three good-looking, sprightly lasses. 
 They truly enough said we were going slowly; so 
 the coachman, to show his gallantry, '' sprung" (for- 
 give me for using the word on such an occasion) his 
 team a bit — for the '' springing 'em" brought them 
 to about seven miles and a half an hour. *' There, 
 ladies !" said he ; *' I suppose you like that?" "Very 
 much," was the answer. " Yes," replied he, '' but 
 my horses would not." 
 
 Yery properly, for the time being, '' Coach," not 
 " Carriage" Horse was the term formerly used 
 for the ponderous animals employed when flam- 
 beaux shed their molten favours on all the hind 
 parts of the in every sense of the term famil}- 
 
128 PBOPEE CONDITION FOR ALL HORSES. 
 
 coach; for it was not only capacious enough to 
 carry the whole family, but had carried the family 
 jfrom which its later owners sprang ; a venerables pe- 
 cimen of antiquity, far more certain, in its day, to 
 descend to the descendants of its original purchaser, 
 than, in later years, has been the venerable, though 
 little venerated, mansion that has been the birth-place 
 of the progenitors of a faster age. Our old Mendi 
 Oliver talks, or writes, of scenes " where rattling 
 chariots clash and torches glare :" these were, per- 
 haps, somewhat later times than when the family 
 appendages of aU sorts were so certain to descend to 
 expectant heirs ; but I believe the term *' rattling," 
 that our bard made use of, did not mean to convey 
 the idea of, in modern conception, " rattling down 
 Park Lane at the rate of fourteen miles an hour." I 
 (without meaning disrespect to bye-gone times and 
 personages) rather conceive the rattling alluded to 
 the noise, not rate of going ; when want of Collinge's 
 axles produced the former, bad pavement increased it, 
 though it quite prevented the rate adding much to it, 
 Trom this it is quite clear that not only was a very 
 
THE CAHEIAGE-HOESE. 129 
 
 different horse used for carriage purposes in former 
 days to those in use now, but that the pace was as 
 different as the horses, is equally certain: it con- 
 sequently becomes indispensably necessary that the 
 condition of the animal must be as different as the 
 animal himself, and the pace we require him to go. 
 
 Every one knows that we do not want such specific 
 strength in carriages destined to run on smooth 
 roads as on rough and uneven ones, consequently do 
 not require the same specific strength in the animal 
 to draw them, under such different circumstances ; 
 our horses of the present day, therefore, in point of 
 weight after them, have two advantages — ^roads that 
 enable two to draw the same carriage with as much 
 ease as- four could on roads of former times, and car- 
 riages of a far lighter construction to draw. Thus 
 far the task of the Carriage-horse is rendered easy 
 enough ; but to set against this, comes that far greater 
 test of horses' quality — " Pace." How much mean- 
 iag do those four simple letters convey ! what vast 
 consequences arise from the effects of that one item in 
 the category of those exertions we require ia the 
 
130 PEOPER COXDITIOI^ FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 horse — ^pace, by wMcli, in its conventual term and 
 spirit, means going fkst, while it creates great plea- 
 sure, also creates vast increased expense. Pace must 
 always involve great wear and tear in what we use 
 and require it from, and in the purse also ; pace brings 
 the horse to a stand-still, and, in figurative language, 
 often the estate to the same predicament. It elevates 
 the Hunter from fifty to three or four hundred, the pair 
 of Carriage-horses from one hundred to three, and,, 
 finally, the horse from three hundred with the noble 
 on his back to three pounds and the costermonger's 
 cart behind h\vn ; and, to speak in metaphor, it has 
 brought the noble to similar vicissitude. To ''go 
 the pace" requires peculiar attributes in horse and 
 man; to '* stay" at it requires stamina in the horse 
 and in the purse also ; and to enable either to do it, 
 requires each to be in " proper condition," or neither 
 will stand it. 
 
 It is known to all men conversant with the pecu- 
 liarities of different classes of horses, that the higher 
 bred the horse is, the higher condition we can bring 
 him to — that is, condition for a fast pace. "We read 
 
THE CAEEIAGE-HOBSE. 131 
 
 of Coacli-liorses of former days being " round," 
 " plump," " smooth," " sleek," " pampered," and so 
 forth; but we never read the word ** condition" as 
 applied to them, and intending to convey with it an 
 idea of the same state it does now ; nor in such days, 
 and for such horses, was such height of condition 
 wanted. A very moderate state of wind sufficed for 
 horses to jog-trot about London streets ; and, to show 
 their want of condition prevented their faster progres- 
 sion, whenever or wherever any like pace was want- 
 ing, the Posters were called into request, whose 
 better breeding and superior condition enabled them 
 to do it. After this, came on the era of improved 
 roads : this caused nearly as great change in people's 
 inclination for quicker transit as has since that period 
 the railroads, and a far greater change in the horses 
 used, and in their condition. So soon as increased 
 speed was wanting, a different kind of horse became 
 wanting ; and fortunately he was of a kind that could 
 be brought into such condition as had become ne- 
 cessary. 
 
 It may joe asked, why could not the condition of 
 
 k2 
 
132 PEOPEE CONBITION FOE AXL HOESIJS. 
 
 the stronger horse have been improved, so as to have 
 enabled him to have kept his footing in public fa- 
 vour? There is no doubt but his condition might 
 have been greatly improved ; but if it had, his 
 powers of speed would not have kept pace with the 
 public desire and taste, and this want of powers of 
 speed would have prevented his ever attaining that 
 proper and high condition to which a better bred 
 horse can be brought. There is, probably, no quad- 
 ruped whose speed could not be increased by proper 
 treatment and practice; but there will always be 
 greater improvement in the speed of naturally fast 
 animals, by training to it, than can comparatively be 
 made iu the slower one ; and if we attempt to make 
 the latter at all vie with the former, we immediately 
 produce distress, and then, as I before stated, condi- 
 tion retrogrades instead of improves : besides this, 
 there is a peculiar something in high breeding, for 
 which we cannot satisfactorily account, that enables 
 the thorough-bred horse to impro /e on such training 
 as no other horse can bear. We know it is so, but 
 we kiiow no more^ it does not arise merely ixom the 
 
TfiE CAEItlAGE-HOESE. 133 
 
 fact that fast animals improve more in proportion 
 than slow ones ; for if it was, how can we account 
 for the following fact ? — ^for fact it would be found, 
 and has been so. 
 
 We know that there have been many cock-tails 
 in racing stables quite as fast as many of the 
 thorough-breds there ; — probably could, in speed, for 
 a mile, beat them. We will suppose one of these 
 thorough-breds to have come to his best general racing 
 form, and that we have brought the cock- tail to what 
 we know is his best condition : we run the two a 
 mile or mile and a half; the cock-tail wins. We 
 will go on with strong work with both another 
 month: the thorough-bred wiU be no better for it; 
 for if he was as well as he could be before, he 
 could not be improved by this extra work ; but how 
 would the cock-tail be by his work having gone on 
 as has the thorough-bred' s ? I think I will venture 
 to say, run them together again, the thorough-bred 
 would win in a canter. There is a peculiar power of 
 bearing continued fast work in the thorough-bred 
 horse, that none else possess ; and the nearer to being 
 
134 PEOPER CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 thorougli-bred the horse is, the more this peculiar 
 attribute is manifested. 
 
 It may be very truly said, we do not want the con- 
 dition of the Eace-horse or Hunter in the Carriage- 
 horse ; we certainly do not, nor do we want him as 
 highly bred, but we want Carriage-horse condition, 
 and we want breeding enough to enable us to get 
 that condition ; and if people will go fast enough in 
 their carriages to call for clear wind in their horses, 
 we must not only get horses fast enough to please 
 such owners, but horses well bred enough to be got 
 in such wind as they will require for the pace they 
 are expected to go. A lady may not be aware that 
 if her carriage comes through the Horse Guards, and 
 goes up to the Hyde Park Comer gate, at the rate of 
 twelve miles an hour, it plays a very fast tune on the 
 pipes of her horses ; it is nearly a mile and a quarter on 
 the rise all the way, — a fair gallopiug pace for a horse 
 in training, when not in actual work. The Bace-horse 
 does this with (say) seven stone on him ; her horses 
 with a carriage, and, as a medium, five persons about 
 it, making a weight of about 1850 lbs. belund them. 
 
THE CAERIAGE-HOESE. 135 
 
 This really not only calls for condition, but "proper 
 condition," in Carriage-horses. 
 
 I think I may say that George the Fourth, as 
 Prince of "Wales, the then Lord Sefton, and Sir John 
 Lade, were the first, or nearly so, who introduced a 
 far higher breed of Carriage-horses than had been 
 before used ; most of their horses were highly bred 
 enough for Hunters, in ordinary countries, and many 
 of them for any country, and, but that they were 
 mostly larger, or rather higher, and more leggy than 
 Hunters should be, were quite good enough, in high 
 condition enough, and many fast enough, to have 
 left their harness and gone with hounds. Yet, as 
 relates to the Prince, fast as his horses were, and they 
 were all picked ones for his purpose, and good as their 
 condition was, their royal master was far too good a 
 judge of horses to trust to these high, leggy horses, 
 in his fast excursions on the road ; for this he had 
 his private Posters, and pretty nearly well bred 
 enough, and in condition enough, to come to the post 
 these horses always were ; the lightest of our Hussars, 
 on their fastest horses, only coming from just by 
 
136 PEOPEE coinDinoy foe all hoeses. 
 
 Tumliam Green, where tlie relay waited, were mostly 
 tired to death before they reached Hyde Park Comer, 
 while the Posters did not give a puff among them. 
 Why was this, the former only coming six miles and 
 a half, the others ten and a half? Simply because 
 though the former were well bred enough, fast enough, 
 and in condition enough, for Troop-horses, they were 
 neither enough to enable them to keep near the 
 Posters without severe distress. It matters little 
 whether wind, and the power of enduring continued 
 fast pace, be wanted on the race-course, in the 
 hunting-field, or on the road, in or out of harness, 
 where it is wanted it must be had, if horses are ex- 
 pected to stand such work ; and to do so, nothing will 
 suffice but " proper condition." 
 
 Persons often complain of their horses falling off 
 in condition ; this arises from three causes : not 
 being by nature fit for the work they are put to, not 
 being properly treated while at work, and quite as 
 often, from not being properly prepared for it ; and all 
 three are indispensably necessary to enable them to 
 perform it. 
 
• THE CAERIAGE-HOESE. 137 
 
 A person may say, supposing he may be convinced 
 of the truth of what I state, that I do not tell him 
 how to keep his Carriage-horses in condition. How 
 can I, imless I know the kind of carriage work he 
 wants them for, or now uses them for ? Let me know 
 this, and, so far as my practice and experience can 
 avail, I will afford the best information in my power. 
 '^ Sic Itur ad astro ^ I wiU begin with the first 
 class of Carriage-horses, and suppose a person keeping 
 such ; the number kept will not matter, provided 
 enough are kept to do the work with proper regard 
 to sufficient exercise of their powers, and no more. 
 
 "Whether a person using such horses breeds them, 
 or purchases them of the breeder or dealer, matters not 
 as to their subsequent performance ; the chief thing 
 is, by some means, to get the sort suited to what is 
 required of them. If moderate pace and action is 
 all that is asked for, such horses are readily found 
 at moderate prices and will suit such owner, and do 
 their work in a satisfactory way ;' if very fashionable 
 action, which is lofty action, and moderate pace is 
 wanted, the same breeding wiU do with a consid- 
 
138 PROPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HORSES. • 
 
 erable advance in price. If great speed is desired, 
 without sucli superabundant action, we must get far 
 better breeding, and this may be got at about the same 
 price as the last ; but if we want (in dealers' phrase) 
 " extravagant action," and great speed too, this 
 raises the Carriage-horse to an almost nominal price ; 
 and nothing but high breeding will stand the wear 
 and tear of very high action and great speed com- 
 bined ; for as it is well known that showy action mili- 
 tates against speed, the horse that combines both 
 is only occasionally met with, and when he is, com- 
 mands a price commensurate with the rareness of the 
 production of such an animal. Having been fortu- 
 nate enough to find such a horse, from whatever 
 source he comes, the first thing to learn is how he has 
 been treated ; if merely in condition for the eye — 
 which I may here say is the case with aU such horses, 
 if young ones — if we put him to immediate use we 
 shall certainly find him get *'smaU by degrees," 
 but by no means " beautifully less ;" he will come 
 from a fine magnificent looking colt, or horse, to an 
 attenuated, overgrown, rawboned animal, and what 
 
THE CAERIAGE-HOESE. 139 
 
 six weeks has undone, it will take six months to set 
 to rights. N'ow when this young horse was pur- 
 chased and put to work, he had plenty of flesh on 
 him and to spare ; all that was wanted was to get 
 off what was superabundant by physic and gentle 
 exercise, and by hard feeding to render what was 
 left firm enough to bear such moderate work as com- 
 mon prudence would tell us to be suited to an animal 
 commencing his routine of labour ; it is, therefore, 
 nine times in ten, want of thought, or want of judg- 
 ment in the owner, that produces the evil he complains 
 of, as regards his horses ; namely, their getting out of 
 condition. Select them with judgment for what you 
 want them to do ; be sure they are properly pre- 
 pared to do it before they are called on to perform it ; 
 give them then plenty of oats and a proper share of 
 work, and horses will not, barring casualties, get out 
 of condition. When owners find their horses begin 
 to show symptoms of not doing well, let them, if 
 their judgment is good, immediately investigate the 
 cause of it ; if they are not judges in such matters 
 (instead of wondering "why such things are,") let 
 
140 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 them consult some one "who is ; he will most probably 
 at once cause their wonder to cease, and rectify "the 
 occasion of their chagrin and the ill doing of their 
 horses. 
 
 We will now turn to a different sort of Carriage - 
 horse, one of less cost, though, as an animal, of quite 
 as much value ; namely, one for purposes of real ubis 
 in the ordinary acceptation of the term. 
 
 As is the case with all horses purchased for any 
 purpose, the first step towards their keeping in condi- 
 tion is, suiting the horse to the purpose for which he is 
 wanted : and the sort of condition into which a horse 
 should be got, depends also on the purpose he is to 
 be applied to ; for if this is not done, the most care- 
 ful coachman in the world will not be able to keep 
 his horses in proper condition ; this is well known to 
 Jobmasters, who take care to keep different sorts of 
 horses, and those (though all in good) in somewhat 
 different states of condition, to suit the different 
 usages different customers would put them to. A 
 man like (we wiU say) Mr. Gray, would ruin him- 
 self if aU his horses were of the same family, same 
 
THE CABEIAGE-HOFvSE. 141 
 
 value, and in precisely the same condition ; he must 
 ■suit the taste and wishes of all his customers no 
 doubt, but he must not, in justice to himself, suit 
 them at the expense of his horses, which would 
 finally be at his own. Supposing I were a Job- 
 master, (for I will not take upon myself to say what 
 Mr. Gray or any other man might do,) and I was de- 
 sired to supply a pair of very splendid looking, grand 
 going-fast horses, and those in the finest possible 
 condition, not only in stamina but coats, — if I knew 
 such were only to be used by day for airings, the 
 Park, and morning calls, and I was allowed to send 
 others for night work, I should name a reasonable 
 sum for their use ; but if, on the contrary', such 
 hordes were wanted by a family who knew little, and 
 cared less, about the proper treatment of horses — kept 
 them out exposed to heats and colds by day and 
 night — if desired to name a simi for the use of such a 
 pair, I should name for the seagon the full value of 
 the horses. 
 
 Cold, horses may be inured to ; but heats, and then 
 chills, no horse, at least no English, can be brought 
 
142 PEOPER CONDITION FOE JlLL HOESES. 
 
 to bear with impunity. In a general way, persons 
 who keep horses for absolute use, must not expect to 
 have as fine horses, or those in as fine condition, as i 
 those who only use them in such way as such horses i 
 and condition will bear ; for where such condition is 
 wanting, if attention is also, or at least not shewn, 
 fine condition is soon lost, and so will be the fine 
 horses, for they will become, from the havoc made 
 with them, but ordinary ones, and then comes the 
 expressed wonder that they are so. Oblige the lady 
 expressing this wonder to walk home from a ball in her 
 white satin dressing slippers, it would go far to relieve 
 her from her wonder that her horses had got out of con- 
 dition from having been exposed to as much improper 
 hardship to them, as walking home would be to her. 
 
 Now horses may be kept in very good condition of 
 a certain kind, and used somewhat roughly too, if 
 brought to it by degrees ; but though even they may 
 be in very proper condition, it will be but proper 
 condition for rough horses ; but even they, though 
 they will stand hard work and cold, will not stand heats 
 aiid then cold. Keep a good seasoned 'v^ear and tear 
 
TKE CAJRHIAGE-HOESE. 143 
 
 horse full of com (and beans, if he wants them), and 
 let his pace be moderate, he will not hurt much Ly 
 exposure to any moderate weather. He has, probably, 
 a good thick coat on his back, and if this is not much 
 wetted by sweat, he wiU stand a north-wester ; but 
 the fast-going, thin- skinned, and fine-coated horse, 
 though high breed and high condition may prevent 
 his sweating much, if he gets his blood heated and is 
 then exposed, is sure to suffer, and very probably 
 fataUy ; therefore, though there is a '^ proper condi- 
 tion " for aU Carriage-horses, the same condition is 
 by no means proper for each of them. 
 
 I have said, that persons keeping horses for use 
 must not expect them to be in the same perfection as 
 to condition, as may those who treat them with more 
 regard to retaining them in such state. This is quite 
 true, but requires some little explanation, for there 
 iire some cases where the horse is kept for use only, 
 yet that very use is the precise cause of the best 
 condition ; the Poster, for instance, as I have before 
 mentioned, the Machiner in a fast coach, ■ and many 
 other situations in which the horse is placed. But bo. 
 
144 PEOPEB CONDITION FOR ALL HORSES. 
 
 it remembered, that though such horses ate employed 
 in usefid purposes only, their owners are so weU 
 aware of the importance of condition in their stock, 
 that care is taken that the animals are not used in 
 any way Hkeiy to militate against this paramount 
 object. It is where the welfare of the horse is made 
 subservient to the use and pleasure, and perhaps 
 ignorance, of his owner that the animal suffers ; and 
 where such is the case, good condition is out of the 
 question, or rather I should say, fine condition ; for 
 there is a wide distinction between the two : for in- 
 stance, the Marquis of Anglesey's carriage-horses are 
 in fine condition, the rough and ready pair I have 
 alluded to are in good condition. Por this reason I 
 use the term " Prober Condition " as the title of this 
 book, as that embraces conditioij as regards horses in 
 their different classes and employ. 
 
 There is a use to which an ordinary Carriage-horse 
 is put, that requires some little (I might say no 
 little) consideration on the part of their ovmers in 
 selecting, — that is, horses for the use of medical men ; 
 and these should be selected in accordance with the 
 
THE C.-LEEIAGE-HOESE. 145 
 
 habits of the practitioner — not his habits as regards his 
 patients, but his horses. Those belonging to men of ■ 
 great celebrity and extensive practi(?e, usually lead a 
 very fair sort of average life, and the greater the 
 practice of the master in a general way, the better 
 is the life of the horses : his position induces him 
 to wish to see good horses in his carriage ; to have 
 this, he well knows they must be well fed, and only 
 properly worked. A private, as well as medical, 
 friend of my family constantly kept three pair at work, 
 and Posters were always hired if he went more than 
 four miles off the stones ; consequently, his horses al- 
 ways looked weU, and were well, and went a good pace. 
 
 Now there are two stages in a medical man's life 
 in which he drives faster than most of his brethren ; 
 these are, when he does so to enable him to get 
 through his business, having a great deal to do ; and 
 in the other case, when he does so to have the ap- 
 pearance of business, but having very little to do. 
 
 In writing a play, if tbe author writes a particular 
 part for a particular actor, it is technically called, 
 "writing at him;" so Avhen many medical men 
 
 L 
 
146 PROPER CONDITION FOR ALL HORSES. 
 
 drive fast, we may call it ** driving at business ;" 
 there are now no few practising this rule, from want 
 of other practice. It succeeds or not, 9,8 the case may 
 be ; so in this the medico puts himself in the case of 
 a patient — that is, what he does kills or cures ; his 
 horses having their full share of the chance of the 
 first casualty. 
 
 There is a particular description of horse that I con- 
 sider as peculiarly adapted to the service of medical 
 men, or others who want Carriage-horses for a similar 
 kind of service ; this is a moderately well bred, com- 
 pact, hardy, quick stepping sort: the very large 
 strong horse would be too slow, and the pace would 
 distress him; the tall magnificent goer would tire 
 himself in such service, and, most probably, also begin 
 to hit his legs so soon as he was so ; the too highl}- 
 bred horse would be starved to death by cold while 
 waiting at doors, after being warmed by exertion ; 
 the close, compact, weight-carrying, enclosed-Hip- 
 country-like Hunter, about fifteen hands three inches, 
 is about the sort I should select for real use in har- 
 ness. Such have breeding enough not to be distressed 
 
THE CARRIAGE-HORSE. 147 
 
 by pace for moderate distances, strengtli enough for 
 any ordinary carriage, and stamina and hardihood 
 enough for any ordinary usage ; such I should select 
 for a friend, wanting useful horses. 
 
 I have, in all I have written, said so much in 
 favour of highly bred horses, that my reader may, or 
 might, expect that, for the use I have described, I 
 should have recommended a more highly bred animal. 
 I must account for not having done so. 
 
 For any, and every purpose, where a continuance of 
 great speed is wanted, I have ever found that nothing 
 but the thorough -bred, or nearly thorough -bred, 
 could stand it ; but then he must be treated as such 
 horses are ; for though, in many respects, the blood 
 horse is as hardy as any other, he is not so in actual 
 exposure to inclemency of weather, for two reasons — 
 he is totally unaccustomed to it ; and if in condition, 
 he is, in comparison with the coarser horse, about in 
 a parallel situation with two men, one in a stout pea 
 coat, the other in one of Mr. Nicol's Derby two 
 ounce paletots. For very fast work, in harness as 
 out of it, the high bred horse has always been found 
 
 L 2 
 
148 PROPER COin)lTION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 to beat the coarser bred one ; but wh^re only moderate 
 continiiance of a fast pace is wanted, I should, for har- 
 ness, prefer a well-bred to a thorough-bred horse : for 
 in such cases the merit of the latter is not called for, 
 and there are points in ordinary thorough-bred horses 
 that render them objectionable. To get a thorough- 
 bred horse of size, substance, and action, fitting him 
 for a carriage, a large sum must be paid, which would 
 be money thrown away, where a half-bred would 
 answer the purpose quite as well ; and, in my opinion, 
 nothing looks worse, or more miserable, than a 
 thorough-bred weedy animal in harness. In Race- 
 horses, or Hunters, in very fast coimtries, we do not 
 wish them to have any useless flesh to carry ; but we 
 are not compelled, by the nature of the work of the 
 Carriage-horse, to be thus particular with him in this 
 respect, for two principal reasons ; in the first place, he 
 has only his own weight and that of his harness to 
 carry, consequently we may allow him a certain weight 
 of flesh of his own ; and, secondly, though he will 
 require good mnd, he will not require that of the 
 Kacer or Hunter, but beyond this specific self weight 
 
THE C.UiEIAGE-HOESE. 149 
 
 in the animal, dra^dng assists his propelling efforts, 
 and in proportion with the assistance such weight 
 affords him, is the exertion he must use diminished. 
 Again, a merely good-looking, or even handsome 
 horse, looks the hetter for being a little high in flesh ; 
 the one that is faulty in shape and make, owes nearly 
 all his passable looks to his ill points being con- 
 cealed by the flesh on him ; and, farther than this, 
 there is no doubt but that horses with a good bit on 
 them, can stand exposure to weather far better than 
 horses very spare in flesh. I am not recommending, 
 nor do I recommend, fat on or in the horse, let him 
 be used for what purpose he may, but I have a great 
 dislike to bones: well-developed muscle I like in 
 horses for very fast work, but ill-concealed bones are 
 quite a different affair. "What I hold to be the pro- 
 per condition of a Carriage-horse for any work, is 
 (with a slight deviation, in accordance of the nature 
 of the work) just such a state as would induce us to 
 say, speaking of a Hunter, " He looks well, but is a 
 little too high in flesh." 
 
 If a man wanted a pair of horses for his family's 
 
150 PJIOPEK CONDITlOir FOE ALL HOUSES. 
 
 use, to go visiting a hundred dear Mends — to go 
 looking for and at a hundred dear (in every sense of 
 the word) shawls, dresses, and trinkets, — to take 
 the ladies to parties, and all other night amusements ; 
 — should a medical man for some reason (but no fault 
 of the horses) wish to part with a pair that had been 
 doing his work, perhaps a better pair could not be 
 selected for such use as I have described ; they would 
 have been seasoned to such degree of hardship as 
 would be required of them ; and being so, would keep 
 in condition, if treated as they had been accustomed 
 to be. But if a nobleman, or any man who was 
 particular in having his horses in first-rate condition, 
 wished to sell a pair of his, should a medical man 
 purchase them for his own use, I should suspect him 
 of being in a state that would render it advisable to 
 call in a brother Esculapius accustomed to attend the 
 insane, or, as I once heard a very good sportsman, 
 who kept a house for the reception of such persons, 
 term them, '^crackly headed ones ;" for it would be 
 the height of ignorance of the nature of horses, 
 insanity or foUy to expect animals taken from tendtr 
 
THE CAHEIAGE-HOESE. 151 
 
 treatment to rough, to retain proper condition for 
 any thing but the kennel. 
 
 On the many occasions in which owners have com- 
 plained of the falling off (or the not getting) in con- 
 dition of their horses, I have found that, in nine 
 cases in ten, if it was a pair, or a stable of horses 
 out of proper state, I could, with very little in- 
 quiry and scrutiny, find out the cause of the evil. 
 With a single horse, detecting what is wrong is by 
 no means so easy; the occasion of this is simple 
 enough, and readily explained. A single horse may 
 have every proper treatment given, and every atten- 
 tion shown him that the best judgment and the best 
 groom can administer, and yet not thrive ; when such 
 is the case, the ailment must be in the animal, and 
 this may be too occult to be detected even by profes- 
 sional skUl, but it is rare that a man gets a pair with 
 such hidden cause .for unthriftiness, and he must be 
 a most unlucky being if he has got hold of a stable 
 of such ; therefore, though in the case of a particular 
 horse the fault, or rather misfortune, very probably, 
 rests with him, I feai' where two or more look 
 
152 PROPEE CONDITION FOE AIX H0ESE3. 
 
 badly, and do badly, the owner must bear the blame? 
 himself. He buys injudiciously, or manages injudi- 
 ciously, or permits others to do so for him ; for if 
 horses are suited to their purpose, and are treated 
 properly for that purpose and themselves, they will 
 look well, unless it be "here and there" one ; and if 
 he belonged to me, I should say, " You maybe there, 
 or any where, but you shall not be long here." 
 
 I can put up with a deHcate horse if he is a bril- 
 liant one, and not wanted for hard and constant work. 
 I have generally found very surprising horses for "a, 
 day," are apt to be not an every-day sort. I lately 
 saw one sold at Tatersalls', for a sum approaching 
 four hundred, that I know cannot come oftener than 
 three days a month with hounds, and greatly prefers 
 one day a fortnight. K any man, wanting a horse to 
 hunt once a week, was to purchase the horse alluded 
 to, could he expect him to keep in condition ? he 
 would be a dog-horse before half a season was 
 over : this horse is a splendid one among a stud ; but 
 if the stud consists of one, he would be dear at a 
 gift fto keep J. This hint, with a little deviatior, 
 
, THE CAERIAGE-HOKSE. 153 
 
 applies to other horses besides the Hunter in ques- 
 tion. 
 
 A friend of mine, a medical man, and, in a gene- 
 Y'dl way, no bad judge of horses (though, I must 
 confess, a far better judge of gentlemanly manners), 
 has lately purchased a Gig-horse ; after driving him 
 a week, he has found him, as he says, ''going some- 
 what sluggish, has lost his cheerfulness, and is fall- 
 ing off in condition." My good friend had overlooked 
 (till told of it) that he had bought this horse fat as a 
 pig, and from a state of idleness ; no wonder he was 
 cheerful, when going out was a treat to him ; but the 
 treat being over, so is the cheerfulness, and so it will 
 be till the oatmeal mashes, and possibly boiled pota- 
 toes, he had gloried in, have enriched the soil, and 
 good old oats have invigorated the horse ; then (and 
 getting used to the fair and moderate work he is put 
 to) he will be cheerful again, and so may ever be his 
 master. 
 
 Some reader may be a little surprised to find me 
 assert that action has a good deal to do with condition, 
 but a little reflection will, I trust, convince him that 
 
154 TEOPER COKDITION FOE ALL HOESES. , 
 
 such assertion is correct. There is a kind of action 
 that tends to fatigue, and another kind that renders 
 progression as little fatiguing as such exertion can \ 
 be ; therefore, two horses going thus differently 
 the same number of miles per day, are not upon a 
 par as to the effect of their work ; for whether we 
 take one horse ten miles, and another twelve, or 
 whether fatiguing action makes ten nules equal to 
 twelve miles in point of exertion, matters not ; the 
 one horse virtually, nay actually, does one fifth more 
 work than the other, or, in other words, undergoes 
 that much more exertion than his neighbour. So, 
 supposing each animal's constitution to be about the 
 same, each to go the same number of miles per day, 
 and each to be fed and cared for the same, they can- 
 not both keep in the same condition. 
 
 A lady who only keeps a pair may say, *'I will have 
 as fine a pair of horses to my carriage, they shall be 
 as magnificent goers, and shall be in as fine condition, 
 
 as those I see the Duchess of go to court 
 
 with." AU this no doubt may be had, and I should 
 admire the spirit that actuated the determination; 
 
THE CAEEIAGE-HOESE. 155 
 
 but I must tell the lady, that the getting a pair of 
 horses precisely like the pair used by the Duchess, 
 alone will not do ; they must be treated and used 
 precisely the same as her aristocratic neighbour's, or 
 the similarity will very soon cease, and the lady 
 would then find that a certain story about a frog and 
 an ox, though written so many years since, carries its 
 moral to this day. Great show will, in all things, call 
 for great sacrifi.ce of comfort and convenience, or 
 money, and we cannot have it -without : if we de- 
 termine to have horses with extravagant action, we 
 must either be extravagant in keeping numbers, or 
 we must sacrifice some convenience of our own to 
 suit that of our horses ; for though going, in technical 
 phrase, " with their knees up to their curb chains " 
 looks extremely well, the exertion such action ex- 
 pends on show, the better (though less fashionable) 
 goer keeps in reserve, and we can call upon him for 
 it, if wanted for our convenience. BeaUy good going 
 promotes condition, because it permits a horse to go 
 with ease ; very extravagant action is against it, from 
 its producing a direct opposite effect. 
 
I 
 
 156 PROP'ER CONDITION FOE ALL HORSES. 
 
 We will now look to single harness horses. We 
 win take the Brougham-horse : such a horse, to he 
 master of his work, and conse(i[uently keep himself in 
 condition, should be of considerably more than half 
 the strength necessary to the pair ; not merely be* 
 cause the carriage is more than half the weight of the 
 one drawn by the pair, but for a more cogent reason — 
 he is always at work : he has no partner to enable 
 him occasionally to draw himself a trifle from his 
 coUar. A pair, though it is imperceptible (if well 
 driven) to the byestander, do give and take a little 
 in shaiing the work; but the Brougham-horse, if 
 going a mile against collar, must lug at his load every 
 step, till variation in the ground gives him a short 
 partial respite. Fortunately these carriages are not 
 usually taken long distances, or horses could not live 
 that draw them. 
 
 I bought two some weeks since; the one for a 
 lady, the other for a family. The first " neat as 
 paiut," with — what is not often met with — true, 
 yet showy action, and in the finest condition ; the 
 Brougham corresponds, as does all about the equip- 
 
THE CAREIAGE-nOHSE. 157 
 
 tige ; all admire it, till they get a glimpse of its fair 
 inmate ; then the eye has but one point of attraction. 
 
 The other horse I bought for a family ; and know- 
 ing he would be wanted every day, great part of 
 each day, and not unfrequently at night also, I had 
 to look for material to stand all this hammering. I 
 found it, and a roughish material it is ; does not 
 mind the battering, nor much the whip ; ^dll work 
 eight hours a day, and incessantly eat the remaining 
 sixteen. I told my friends I would not catch him, 
 if he was strajing, for my own use ; — but he suits 
 them. Each of these horses hare kept their condi- 
 tion, because each was, and is, adapted to his situa- 
 tion, without which neither would have done so. 
 
 The condition of the Gig-horse, in years gone by, 
 required to be very different from what it is now. I 
 know of no work that teijds to more jade a horse 
 than long distances in single harness : take the 
 most impatient horse that ever wore a collar, drive 
 him long distances at the slowest rate he can be made 
 trot, and in a very few days he will become as pa- 
 tient as could be wished. Supposing him to be a fast 
 
158 PEOPEE COITDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 horse, driving him fifty miles a day for a "week, 3t 
 the rate of ten miles an hour while he is going, won't 
 do — it will put him out of condition, and probably off 
 his feed, neither of which is what would be wished ; 
 and further, this might also make him still more 
 fretful, after he got fresh again. Long- continued 
 very slow work quiets an impatient, on the same 
 principle that keeping him waking day and night 
 tames a violent one — it acts on the animal spirits. 
 Many a horse that would have torn himself to pieces 
 in a coach working a stage, though it might have 
 been a severe one, would shortly become perfectly 
 quiet, and keep his condition, working a street cab. 
 The being in harness so many hours together wearies 
 the spirit ; a severe stage of an hour's duration only 
 distresses the legs and general frame, both by the 
 nature of the work and the animal fretting at it; and 
 no horse loses flesh and condition sooner than a frac- 
 tious one. I like a horse a little impatient in single 
 harness, for light work ; they are mostly pleasant to 
 drive, and a certain degree of impatience usually im- 
 proves action ; but the impatience that is caused by 
 
THE CAEEIAGE-HOESE. 159 
 
 a generous spirit is quite different from the fretful- 
 ness occasioned by a fractious disposition disliking 
 the work he is put to. Speaking of a team, a horse 
 may be impatient, and take the whole of his side of 
 a coach, if not prevented ; or he may be fretful, and 
 not face his collar enough to draw a man's hat off ; 
 for such horse single harness is the sovereign cure, for 
 there he must work, if he goes on at aU ; very pos- 
 sibly will work, when not irritated by excitement, 
 and do well at such work. 
 
 The condition wanted for a Gig-horse now, is very 
 different from what was absolutely necessary when 
 gigs were used for long distances on the road. Xo 
 one now drives his gig to Bath; such a vehicle, 
 showing it was on a journey, would now be nearly as 
 much stared at as was an old aunt of mine, when 
 seen in her sedan chair nearly at Finchley Common. 
 In those days single harness horses wanted the con- 
 dition of Hunters; but now, when a Stanhope or 
 Tilbury is rarely seen, — and if it is, a drive from 
 Linmier's to Kensington Gore is about the extent of 
 its journey, — ^little com and a good deal of flesh will 
 
160 PROPER CONDITION FOR ALL HORSES. 
 
 answer well enough ; when before, half-peck feeds, 
 plenty of muscle hut no fat, alone enabled a Oig- 
 horse to trot cheerfully into I^ewbury one night, and 
 into Bath the next. What we may, therefore, call 
 Tilbury condition, does well enough in London streets, 
 or for such short distances (js such horse-kHling ve 
 hides are fitted for ; but it won't do at all for the 
 lighter and better - following plain grasshopper- 
 springed ten mile an hour gig, or rather for the horse 
 that draws it; for if only in such condition, after going 
 fifty miles, a horse would be found (as the friend I 
 have mentioned said) to go " somewhat sluggish, and" 
 to have '' lost his cheerfulness." 
 
 There are two states of mproper condition, both of 
 which tend to make a horse '' somewhat sluggish" — 
 too much work and too much fat. Fat, if only to a 
 certain extent, being the effect of little work, renders 
 an animal high in spiiits, till he becomes wearied : 
 gross fat makes him unwilling to make any exertion ; 
 over- work produces the same effect; and in single 
 harness, being both able and willing to exert himself, 
 IB more required in the horse than in any other har- 
 
THE CARRIAGE-HOKSE. tGl 
 
 ness, being both able and willing to exert bimself, 
 is more required in the horse than in any other har- 
 ness work, for we have his individual exertion to 
 trust to. 
 
 The work, and indeed life, of the Harness-horse, 
 is, in the generality of cases, so wonderfully im- 
 proved, and so far less onerous than it was, that it is 
 quite unpardonable in owners now, to exhibit horses 
 out of condition ; in fact, we are not in these days an- 
 noyed by seeing the wretched objects that used to 
 disgrace our streets. That unfortunate animal, the 
 Hackney-coach-horse, is no more; street carriages 
 we have, and in far greater numbers than in former 
 times ; but the animals drawing them, with occasional 
 exceptions, look, and are, quite equal to their work. 
 The Hansom's cab drivers have a spice of the emu- 
 lative in them, and if a good goer comes along- 
 side them, in a gentleman's vehicle, a sound of the 
 half four-horse thong over the ears cf their wide- 
 a-wake nag sets him going, and on such occasions 
 two to one cabby gives the " go by." A little spare of 
 flesh many of their horses are, but the coat and ^m 
 
 M 
 
162 PROPEE CONDITION FOR ALL HOESES. 
 
 muscle show oats are not wanting ; it is the pace 
 keeps down the fat, and, for real use, they are the 
 better for it. These horses, on an average, I call in 
 proper condition ; that is, for a street cab, which is 
 enough : horses cannot be in proper condition for all 
 purposes ; they may for all purposes of ^t harness 
 work, or for all show purposes in harness, but not for ! 
 both at tie same time. The splendid animal we i 
 may see standing in a private cabriolet at a club- 
 house door, is in proper condition to stand there to 
 be admired, so he is to go from St. James' to 
 Ejiightsbridge Barracks, or Grosvenor or Portman 
 Squares ; the Hansom's Cab-horse would look nothing 
 standing by his side, or in the cabriolet, but give 
 both a twist to Epsom, and the aristocratic-looking 
 and aristocratic-going two hundred guineas' produc- 
 tion of Mr. Anderson's stable, though cheap at the 
 money he cost for his destined purpose, would look ' 
 as subdued as any other fashionable gentleman in 
 distress, ere he reached the celebrated trysting place 
 mentioned. Cabby would chuckle about as Frank 
 Butler did on seeing Barbarian and Chief Baron 
 
THE CAHEIAGE-HOESE. 163 
 
 Nicholson contending, as their riders thought, for 
 the palm of victory ;* " "Wait a bit," said Frank ; '' "Wait 
 a bit,'* says cabby : each give their nag a shake, and go 
 in and win. Good riding landed the worst horse the 
 winner on the course : good condition brought, not 
 perhaps the worst, but the least valuable horse, 
 thi'ough on the road. Nor would this be all ; our 
 high (in each sense of the word) and aristocratic 
 horse of fashion would, on his arrival, shew his 
 fashionable habit in listlessly turning over the repast 
 before him, to select, if possible, a grain to tempt his 
 want of appetite. Cabby's nag rams his nose into his 
 half-peck, clears that, is ready for something else, or 
 ready to return his stage at a moment's warning ; and 
 without wasting his powers in action for show, slips 
 over the ground in a way that surprises his passenger 
 that each mile-stone succeeds the other in such ,quick 
 succession. 
 
 Supposing such a case to have occurred, *' This has 
 given me a lesson," may say the owner of the Cab- 
 riolet-horse ; " I am determined in future to have my 
 horse in proper condition." Tf I overheard him say 
 
164 PEOPEK CONDITIOX FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 SO, I should take the liberty of saying, " My good 
 sir, your horse is in proper condition." " Then how 
 was it (he might say) that common Cab-horse went 
 by me with perfect ease, and, I could see, could have 
 beat me ten times as far, had his driver wished it ?" 
 '' Excuse me, if I tell you it was because you put 
 your horse to an improper purpose. In the first 
 place, a tall quite half-bred horse, with peculiar ' up 
 knee action,' is not calculated for a long stage in 
 quick time ; your horse gets barrack allowance, or 
 tantamount to it, which suffices for barrack-work, or 
 street work, and he is unused to severe exertion. The 
 Cab-horse is higher bred, has, probably, been a Hunter 
 — (some of these have been Eace-horses) ; the Cab- 
 horse gets as many oats as he will eat, and is daily 
 accustomed to pace and distances ; two horses so dis- 
 similarly situated, are no match at the same work; and 
 (say) fifteen miles at a fast rate, in single harness, with 
 a heavy vehicle to draw, depend o^ it is no joke. 
 Xeep your horse in his proper place, he is proper, 
 and his condition is proper fot that ; but if you want 
 a twist to Epsom, you must get a proper horse and 
 
THE CAEEIAGE-HORSE. 165 
 
 have proper condition for it, or, like many others going 
 to the same place, you will wish yon had put faith 
 in another horse." 
 
 Omnibus-horses, with the exception of some of the 
 Paddington, and most of the Blackwall ones, are 
 mostly, in proper, many in very high condition ; now 
 with them, as with most other horses, this arises, in 
 great measure, from the goodness of the roads they tra- 
 vel over. It is true, as a counterpoise to that, they take 
 from twenty to twenty-four passengers, sometimes 
 more, a most decisive proof of the little effect of weight 
 when compared with heavy roads ; but this is not all, 
 for owners could, if they chose it, give their horses such 
 work as would reduce them to the state of the old Hack- 
 ney-coach-horse ; but if they did, the horses would be 
 unable to do their work, as people will now be con- 
 veyed, so they find that condition is, after all, the 
 cheapest state to keep a horse in. Even in a cab, no 
 one, but a person wanting sense, consideration, or 
 humanity, would take one with a wretched-looking 
 animal in it, when another, with a horse seemingly 
 well treated in it, was to be had ; a good-looking 
 
166 PEOPEE CONDITION FOR ALL HOESES. 
 
 turn-out brings custom ; it brings work for the horse 
 no doubt, but as to look well he can do but a fair 
 quantum of it, the more work a man gets, the more 
 horses he must keep ; and if two horses, each by his 
 portion, produce a profit to the owner, three will pro- 
 duce a third more, and so on. !N^o doubt, the owners 
 of such horses have found this out ; so to their in- 
 terest, more than their humanity, we owe the im- 
 proved condition of the horses that draw us. 
 
 We will now turn our remarks to a description of 
 Harness-horse, that is, allowing a certain latitude for 
 the accusation, "never in the condition he ought to 
 be ;" fortunately, this horse is the last we have occa- 
 sion for, as he conveys us to " that bourne," &c. &c., 
 and from whence no one returns an account of how he 
 was conveyed the last stage of his travel, perhaps tra- 
 vail in this world. We might suppose very little con- 
 dition would be required for horses for such slow and 
 sombre purpose, and certes very little condition it is he 
 does require ; but there is a proper condition wanted to 
 draw an apple cart ; many are in proper state for this ; 
 but if we see an animal in a reeking state of sweat 
 
THE CAERIAGE-HOESE. 167 
 
 from a gentle trot from Kensal Cemetery to Park 
 Lane, it is not invidious to come to the conclusion thai 
 such horse is not in proper condition even for that ; and 
 such state is no uncommon result of such exertion, 
 if exertion it can be called. It may be said, such 
 horses are of a bad sort in themselves ; I allow they 
 are of the worst possible sort of animal called horse. 
 I never saw one of their kind worth the velvet and 
 feathers he carried ; but really, he might, I think, 
 be brought to a state to perform his duties (though 
 perhaps none other), without looking, not as if we 
 had ridden him hunting only, but as if he had been 
 hunted ; about the usual effect of bad condition in 
 any case : but where this is the case, and the sort 
 bad too, it may well be called ''black work." 
 
 I think I have seen as various sorts of horses as 
 most men ; that is, I have seen and owned English of 
 all sorts, Irish of most sorts, and seen numbers of Rus- 
 sian, Prussian, Austrian, French, Flemish, Spanish, 
 Arab, Persian, and Norwegian ; a tolerable long cate- 
 gory of different denizens of different countries ; but 
 the most unmitigated brute I ever saw, take them as a 
 
168 PROPEE CONDITION FOS ALL HOESES. 
 
 breed, are the Blacks we see used for fimer^ pur- 
 poses. I will not even name the country they come 
 from, for I dislike no country, nor the man or beast 
 that comes from it, if he is a good one, but for these 
 horses I have, as Shylock calls it, *' a certain loathing 
 that I bear" them; their prick ears, bull crests, 
 straight shoulders, light carcases, short rumps, bad 
 thighs, and thick fleshy legs, are my abomination ; 
 but I will do them justice ; they are rarely in condi- 
 tion to in any way counteract these numberless and 
 wonderful imperfections. There are other horses of 
 a sort of which I never saw a good one, but I never 
 heard of one of this sort. 
 
 We will now descend lower in the grades of 
 horses, and come to those used in tradesmen's light 
 carts, and by costermongers ; though, I must confess, 
 I only call such lower in compliance with the gen- 
 eral idea of the public, for I respect even many such 
 costermonger's donkies as I have seen, far more than 
 I do some of Mr. Shiliber's lot ; I respect any thing 
 good of its kind, and the more so if the kind be good. 
 
 Formerly, such a phenomenon as a butcher's horse 
 
THE CAEEIAGE-HOHSE. 169 
 
 in anything like condition was not to be seen, or ex- 
 pected to be seen ; now we seldom see one that is not 
 so. I do not give our useful friends the butchers quite 
 credit for this improvement in the state of their 
 horses from any peculiar feelings of humanity, but 
 from seeing most horses in a decent condition, they 
 have the merit, at least, of following good example ; 
 and are, as it were, shamed into better usage of their 
 horses than formerly was the case. 
 
 Our grocery is now brought to our doors in tilted 
 light carts — not with the old road- waggon article used 
 as a tilt, but with one black japanned ; the harness 
 patent leather, where such leather is usable, and Day 
 and Martined where it is not ; this requires a horse 
 to match, and such horses they use. Those to keep in 
 unison with the turn-out must look well, and to keep 
 up good looks good condition is required, and the 
 tradesman's porter who acts as groom to the horse, 
 has learned the wonderful secret of keeping his 
 horse in condition ; namely, complaining if he finds 
 he is not of a sort to suit the work, and when he has 
 got one that is, taking care he gets plenty of oats, is 
 
170 PROPEE COIfDITION FOE ALL HORSES.^ 
 
 fairly driven, and in not subjecting him to improper 
 heats and colds ; the most knowing groom can do little 
 more for an ordinary horse, hundreds do not do half 
 as much. 
 
 Horses are by no means unreasonable in their de- 
 mands on our care to keep them in health and or- 
 dinary cojidition ; very fine condition requires more 
 care, no doubt, but then horses expected to be in such 
 state are not exposed to circumstances to put them 
 out of it. We certainly should want a suit of kersey 
 or blanket clothing, and an oil-skin suit over those, 
 if we wanted a Hunter to stand in a pouring rain 
 in a cold night, waiting at a door ; but Hunters are 
 not so exposed (nor, indeed, should any thing be but 
 a Polar Bear), so the oil-skin suit is not wanted ; and 
 if each horse is in proper condition for the usage he 
 is subject to, neither wiU be more Hkely to lose that 
 condition than the other ; it is the not attending to 
 this that brings on the loss of condition so complained 
 of. It is not because we see the well-attended Car- 
 riage-horse out at night, vrith his warm quarter-piece 
 under his harness, and his water-proof half hood on. 
 
THE CAEEIAGE-HOESE. 171 
 
 and the Cab-horse without either, that it follows the 
 latter will take cold and the former will not ; the one 
 wiU be as likely to suffer, and no more than the other, 
 if both are in proper condition for their different 
 vocations. 
 
 It may appear somewhat startling, if I state that 
 pace (that is, a faster pace than was formerly de- 
 manded of horses) has done away with the exhibi- 
 tion of bare bones, so commonly seen when a slower 
 pace was in use^; but I think I can account for this 
 seeming enigma. Although a horse going a very 
 slow pace in a very light vehicle can certainly be 
 kept on very little com, indeed on none, and will 
 look well, his work must not only be slow, but short ; 
 but there is a something in quick work that, short 
 though it may be, cannot be got through without a 
 liberal allowance of oats ; without these the flesh on 
 horses becomes so soft, that any unusual circum- 
 stance, as an extra day's work, or illness, cause it, in 
 vulgar phrase, to "melt like butter:" this is seen at 
 once if a horse in such soft state is put to any thing 
 bordering on real work ; so now all horses get a far 
 
172 PEOPER COXDITIOX FOR ALL nOESES. 
 
 greater allowance of hard feeding than they did (I 
 €xcept the few Machi tiers and Posters remaining, as 
 such were always highly fed). If ahorse on hard 
 feeding, gets a day or two of extra hard work, he 
 may look a little '' tucked up," but his firm flesh 
 will not be visibly diminished by it, and a day or 
 two of ease sets all to rights. It is not so with 
 horses less HberaUy fed ; thus the old Hackney- 
 coach-horses were seen the wretched objects they 
 were, though their pace was only a jog-trot ; they 
 had not com enough to keep them up equal to their 
 work, and, when once below it in stamina, wanted 
 vitality enough to recover even the apology for con- 
 dition they had lost. The very moderate price oats 
 have been at for some years, has also wonderfidly 
 contributed to the welfare of horses ; that is, of ordi- 
 nary horses, every costermonger's pony now, more 
 or less, gets his com. Who knows, but if the present 
 spirit of statistical policy goes on, the man may get 
 his modicum of wine, from the same cause as his 
 pony gets his oats. There is an old saying, that 
 ** the dull ass will never mend his pace by beating ;" 
 
THE CAERIAGE-HOESE. 173 
 
 perhaps not ; but he will by oats : and again, though 
 beating might not accelerate the pace of the dull 
 ass, it will that of the sprightly one. I have heard 
 it said a donkey will leave oats for a thistle : I dare 
 say he might, if he had eaten half a peck of the 
 former, but not before he began them. I suspect 
 those entertaining the idea of Jack's extraordinary 
 preference of thistles to oats, had not tried him with 
 the latter. Jack has been accused of being by na- 
 ture stubborn, and indeed vicious. This is vastly 
 exaggerated : he is knocked about by boys as a foal, 
 so he learns to kick at them, to keep them off. He 
 is then brutally used by men : he becomes sulky, and 
 viciously disposed to them also. He hates his tyrants 
 — who does not ? and '* hates any man the thing that 
 he would not kill?" What is found intolerable, or 
 unusually irksome, always produces a wish to resist 
 it, even if the power is wanting. "Work is irksome 
 in the extreme, when the state of the worker unfits 
 him for it : put him in such state as enables him to 
 perform his task with moderate endurance, and he 
 will do it willingly, more or less, in accordance with 
 
174 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 the generosity of his nature. So fkr from the ass 
 being, as I have heard asserted, an instance in which, 
 and a creature on which, good care is thrown away, I 
 hold Jack forward as one of my strongest proofs that 
 '' proper condition" not only alters looks, pace, and 
 endurance, hut even disposition. 
 
 I once made a bet that I would find an ox that 
 should, in my gig, trot ten miles in an hour. Prom 
 a circumstance quite unconnected with the bet, it 
 did not come off; but I should have done it with 
 ease. The ox was a working one, three years old, 
 and of small size, very playful ; and his trotting ac- 
 tion, when loose, was extraordinary. I required four, 
 months to train my trotter ; — not fearing his willing- 
 ness or temper, but to get him in form and wind, 
 and, above all, to get plenty of old oats in him. 
 
 "We have often heard of extraordinary feats being 
 done by ponies. I do not consider this in any way 
 extraordinary ; and I think we may fairly attribute 
 a good deal of their greater powers of endurance, pro- 
 portionably, compared with the horse, to their being 
 more easily kept ; so many that are in the hands of 
 
THE CAILRIAGE-HORSE. 175 
 
 persons who could not afford to keep a horse on full 
 allowance, are pretty well kept as ponies. So, sup- 
 posing their powers of endurance to be the same, the 
 well-kept pony will beat the ill-kept horse, from 
 such circumstance alone. So much for condition; 
 for though the pony may not be in the best, if he is 
 only in half condition, he is better off than the horse 
 that is only one quarter towards it, and will beat him 
 in the long run, whenever he meets him. 
 
 But there is another cause why ponies often sur- 
 prise us in their performance more than horses, which 
 arises from their deriving benefit from a cause that I 
 have stated greatly promotes condition. Ponies, un- 
 less their beauty is conspicuous, are much less costly 
 than horses ; and as beauty is in no way necessary to 
 performance, and as that kind of action that com- 
 mands a high price is against it, a pony of uncom- 
 mon attributes as to pace and endurance is to be got 
 for a sum that would only purchase a very middling 
 horse : thus the pony, put to a purpose to which he 
 is quite adequate, must ever beat the horse put to one 
 for which he is unfitted. We all know that size, in 
 
176 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 certain situations, gives increased powers ; a moderate 
 Eace-liorse will beat the best racing pony, and a 
 good racing galloway; but a very good ordinary 
 Hunter would stand no chance at all against a 
 superior racing galloway, though one was only thir- 
 teen hands and a half high, the other fifteen three, 
 — ^that is, fifteen hands three inches; and why? 
 the one was adapted to racing purposes, the other was 
 not. Thus, a superior pony, going with ease to 
 himself, will beat the larger horse going with laboured 
 action — that is, action that does not suit the task or 
 feat each engage in against the other. !N'o animal, 
 and I include man, can do that weU for which he is 
 not adapted ; nor will or can he do well himself in 
 the attetupted performance of it, for a mere attempt 
 it will be. 
 
 I think I am correct in saying, that (with possible 
 exceptions I am not aware of) all small quadrupeds 
 are endued with far greater proportionate powers of 
 endurance of continued exertion than are larger ones ; 
 in feet, many of the smaller kind, without any re- 
 ference to proportions, possess such attribute to the 
 
' THE CAEEIAGE-HOKSE. 177 
 
 greater extent. A fox-hound, for instance, would, I 
 am certain, beat the best Hunter in the world, though 
 both were turned loose, in a week's endurance of 
 fatigue ; whence this arises I do not pretend to decide ; 
 why it may be so as respects the fox-hound and 
 horse, I think may be accounted for in this way — I 
 consider the limbs of the hound are far stronger, in 
 proportion to his weight of body, than are those of 
 the horse. Why, among all the extraordinary ex- 
 periments that have been tried, have all attempts at 
 men using artificial wings failed ? simply, because the 
 muscular power of man's arm is not equal to the 
 support of his body. I have remarked, that in racing 
 ponies and galloways, when in training, and their 
 bodies of course lightened, they exhibit more bone 
 than does the full sized Eace-horse — that is, more 
 bone in span, in proportion to its length ; and length 
 wonderfully decreases strength, unless size is increased 
 in adequate proportion, which in well-bred, that is, 
 high-bred horses, I do not think it is. Thus, where 
 horses carry weight for inches, I consider the balance 
 greatly in favour of the low-measuring horse, though, 
 
178 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 on the other hand, he loses the advantage of stride, 
 yet, again, this is often made up hy quickness of stroke. 
 But I must not go farther on this suhject, as it 
 would lead me from the one in hand. The observa- 
 tions I have made are intended to show that the 
 pony, being in many cases fed better in proportion 
 than the horse, and being in the same ratio stronger, 
 is, in a general way, more competent to his task than 
 is the larger animal ; independent of this, it is quite 
 clear that quick action distresses the tendons and 
 muscle far less than a more elongated step ; and I 
 have remarked, in corroboration of this, that Race- 
 horses when having, as a few have, a quick active mode 
 of walking, keep longer clear in their legs than those 
 with the usual lounging walk such horses get into. 
 Keeping or exposing any thing to tension, tends to 
 fatigue ; hence the objection I have stated I make to 
 very prolonged walking exercise for horses like 
 the Race-horse, with elongated stride in the walk ; 
 and I am quite convinced, though I do not presume 
 to convince others, that the foundation, or rather the 
 cause, of after-failing in the legs, often originates in the 
 
THE CAEEIAGE-HORSE. 179 
 
 •walk. I allude to Kace-horses, or others, who may 
 have contracted this mode of walk. But let us re- 
 turn to horses of a trotting sort. 
 
 It is a received opinion that horses can do more 
 work, both as to distance and repetition of work, in 
 harness than they can under the saddle ; and, taking 
 horses and circumstances both on an average, I am quite 
 sure such opinion is correct ; and the advantage they 
 work under in harness, compared with saddle work, 
 is far greater than it was in former times ; in fact, 
 two centuries ago, travelling on horseback was the 
 only mode by which our ancestors could get across 
 country ; when roads were made, carriages got into 
 use, but their progress was of necessity slow, and the 
 labour to the horse great ; so it is only within a com- 
 paratively recent date that the advantage of harness- 
 work has been felt by the horse, for in Dad roads he 
 would perform his journey far more easily if ridden, 
 than he would in harness ; and again, the advantage 
 a horse derives from harness very greatly depends on 
 his style of going ; if this is not adapted to harness- 
 work, such horse wiU not do well at it, and will con- 
 
 N 2 
 
180 PEOPEK CONDITION FOE AXL HOESES. 
 
 stantly lose condition, for which his owner may be 
 at a loss to account. The very thing that renders a 
 horse safe and pleasant to ride, is just what would he 
 against his working to advantage in harness ; namely, 
 being, as we term it, "weU on his haunches;" 
 lie cannot well have a qualification more against him 
 for draft ; whatever may be the weight he has to 
 draw, it wiU be to him heavier than for a horse with- 
 out this qualification, desirable as it is to a Eiding- 
 horse. "We will suppose a man drawing a weight 
 after him ; more or less he leans forward, oblige him 
 to walk erect," he could not move the weight he was 
 before drawing with comparative ease ; it is the same 
 with the horse, if he throws himself on his haunches 
 he involuntarily raises his fore parts, which is diame- 
 trically the reverse to what would take weight along : 
 horses accustomed to harness find this out in time, 
 and so soon as they have learned it and put it in prac- 
 tice, they become less pleasant and less safe to ride ; 
 and this is why Eiding-horses should not be much prac- 
 tised in harness, and whv those used to draw heaw 
 weights are seldom afterwards- fit to ride. There is 
 
THE CAEILIAGE-HOESE. 181 
 
 another striking difference in favour, or against the 
 harness-horse, in the form of his shoulders ; those of 
 the Eiding-horse cannot well be too oblique, whereas 
 for harness, the straight shoulder is far more in his 
 favour ; in the first place, it brings the chief bearing 
 of the collar on the strong part of the animal, namely, 
 on the projecting parts of each side of the setting-on 
 of the neck, or rather on the setting-on of the 
 shoulder. A collar setting thus straight, does not 
 certainly set off the horse so much as one laying 
 more obliquely, but it gives great increased power of 
 draft ; secondly, collars laying obliquely are sure to 
 press more or less on the vrind-pipe, consequently 
 produce distress. I saw rather a singular instance of 
 this not many days since. 
 
 Passing a public-house, I saw a horse in a loaded 
 van standing at the door ; he attracted my attention, 
 from his leaning on his collar more than is usual 
 in horses standing still ; while looking at him I saw 
 him stagger, and near falling ; I guessed the cause ; 
 so laying hold of his bit, I chucked him up and back : 
 he gave a peculiar lengthened respiration, and then 
 
182^ PEOPEE ^JOKDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 shook himself ; the fact was, at the moment I chucked 
 him up he was choking. His driver came out of the 
 house, and from him I learned the horse had fell in 
 harness several times before. His shoulders were par- 
 ticularly oblique. I remarked that he was not in 
 such condition as I should have expected to see a 
 horse, belonging to such a name as was on the van. 
 The man assured me the horse was not overworked, 
 was well fed, and that two more under the same care 
 were, as the man said, "roimd as eggs." I have no 
 doubt this hoj-se always worked in a certain degree 
 of distress, cr, at all events, discomfort, and hence 
 his want of doing as well as his comrades. 
 
 Horses with straight shoulders mostly stand with 
 their legs more or less under them ; their being so, 
 causes such horses to go with a tendency to leaning 
 forwards, which, without any muscular exertion of 
 the animal, throws a specific weight against the col- 
 lar ; the want of this must be made up by the 
 oblique-shouldered horse by exertion of his powers : 
 so he is actually at all times, unless going down-hill, 
 undergoing more exertion than his less handsomely 
 
THE CAEEIAGE-HOESE. 183 
 
 made neighbour ; lie is, therefore, always doing more 
 work than the other ; so, unless he has the stronger 
 constitution, the chances are, he will not keep in 
 the same condition with the same work. 
 
 The description of country a Harness-horse is worked 
 in, makes a wonderful difference to many ; for in- 
 stance, a horse with anything like a lengthened 
 lounging trot works to great disadvantage in a hilly 
 country ; he does not take a carriage evenly and 
 smoothly after him up-hill, but, to a certain degree, 
 works it up as it were zig-zag — as if he first gave an 
 impetus to one wheel, and then the other ; this, to a 
 certain extent, he actually does, as will be seen by 
 the motion of his coUar, which, instead of laying in 
 a steady position, will be seen rocking from side to 
 side on his neck, as the advance of each shoulder pro- 
 pels it ; this not only renders his progression up-hill 
 laborious, but is next to certain to cause galled 
 •shoulders. Going down hill is not only distressing 
 to such a horse, but dangerous in the extreme. It 
 will be seen that, from his elongated step, each time 
 his foot reaches the ground it causes a considerable 
 
184 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 shock to his whole frame, and the collar will be ob- 
 served to be brought each time nearly to his nose by 
 the draft of the pole -piece ; whereas on a short, quick - 
 stepping horse, it will preserve a (nearly) fixed posi- 
 tion, and keep a uniform pressure on the wither or 
 rather top of the neck. It may be said, that a horse 
 with the long step alluded to, may be driven with a 
 false martingale to keep his collar down : he may ; but 
 where this is constantly called into use it is very apt 
 to gall ; a regular breeching is the only thing of real 
 use to hiTn ; this takes the shock off his neck, but it 
 does not prevent his experiencing a severe one from 
 the weight of his own body, and that propelled with, 
 of course, additional force from his resistance to the 
 descending carriage behind ; in fact, up hill or down, 
 he works uncomfortably, and to disadvantage, and 
 will not, therefore, keep in the same condition as a 
 horse whose style of going fits him for hill work. 
 Added to this, the long-stepping horse feels he does not 
 go safely down hill, so he is in constant alarm when 
 doing so : in fact, he has no business in such a 
 country, though in a flat one he would probably be 
 
THE CAEEIAGE-HOESE. 185 
 
 a fast, lasting, and valuable Harness-horse. In 
 single harness such a horse will work with equal 
 disadvantage, excepting he will not feel the shock on 
 his neck on going do^Ti hill ; but he will still have to 
 resist theieaniage, and the motion of that will be 
 found most unpleasant to the driver; and should 
 such a goer make a blunder, broken shafts, broken 
 knees, or some broken bone of horse or man is very 
 likely to occur. Should such be the case, the driver 
 might wish he had, on the score of condition, sold 
 such a horse to go where he could work comfortably 
 and safely. 
 
 Horses, like ourselves, have sometimes very singular 
 whims and caprices, for which we cannot account. He 
 cannot tell us why he may entertain such peculiar 
 habit ; we should therefore do him the justice, to hold 
 it quite possible he has some reason, or rather feeling, 
 that may induce him to do that unwillingly, which 
 others readily perform. I have known men enter- 
 tain a predilection for or against a peculiar act, who, 
 though they could speak, could give no better reason 
 for their peculiar feeling than " they did not know 
 
186 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 why, but they did feel it." Now I firmly believe 
 that horses (of whom I entertain a much higher opi- 
 nion, on the score of disposition, than I do of their 
 lords and masters) seldom object to do any thing 
 we require of them without some causeji;hat, if we 
 could come at, would quite account for any unwil- 
 lingness they may evince to the performance of any 
 particular act. 
 
 A friend of mine bought a very clever single har- 
 ifess horse about two years since : he wanted bim to 
 work by the side of another, as a pair. . He had no 
 doubt of the horse going weU and cheerftdly; he 
 did not, thoUgh ; he would not pull an ounce to start 
 a carriage, and when off, went as unpleasantly to the 
 driver as it was quite clear he did to himself; nor 
 did he get reconciled to it in the few times I drove 
 him. 
 
 "When purchased his condition was perfect both as 
 to flesh and coat. I saw him six weeks afterwards, 
 his coat stared, his skin stuck to him, his flesh was 
 gone, and he looked jaded and dispirited, as no doubt 
 he was. Not I am sure Ironi want of care, but he 
 
THE CAEEIAGE-HOESE. 187 
 
 hated his work ; it was injudicious, not to say cruel, 
 to keep him at it. He was a remarkably neat good 
 single-harness horse spoiled. I heard he was sold 
 twelve months since at Aldridge's, in wretched state, 
 and with two broken knees. I now see him in a 
 Hansom cab, iu good condition, and showing, by his 
 action and spirit, what he was. Thus was about 
 seventy pounds knocked out of this horse's price in 
 a few months, by keeping hitn at a purpose for which, 
 for some reason, he was unfit. He lost condition, 
 lost spirit ; no doubt while in that state lost action, 
 and that accounts for the broken knees. His present 
 work is doubtless hard ; but beiug fit for it, he keeps 
 his condition. 
 
 It might be asked, why a perfectly good-tempered 
 horse, accustomed to drag a pair of wheels by him- 
 self, should object to a light four-wheeled carriage, 
 with a partner ? I cannot give the reason, but I would 
 suggest several ; for instance, he might have been 
 given too much work in double harness as a young 
 one, and so have got disgusted with it : he might 
 have been severely treated in his breaking, an:i 
 
188 PEOPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES, 
 
 remembered it : he might have had his withers bruised 
 hj the collar, or have been frightened by a carriage 
 overpowering him down hill: might have been 
 worked with a lazy partner, so have had the chief 
 work to do himself, or might have been annoyed or 
 hurt by an unruly one. Any of those circumstances 
 would readily and fairly excuse his dislike to double 
 harness ; and while there are plenty of horses adapted 
 to every kind of harness, it is very bad judgment to 
 put — or, at least, keep — a horse at any kind of work 
 he dislikes. Even if it was sheer caprice, and we 
 could ascertain it to be such, it would be better policy 
 to indulge it, than to worry an animal out of his con- 
 dition, in attempting the doubtful experiment of 
 overcoming his peculiarity, let it arise from what 
 cause it might. 
 
 "We now come to the last class of Harness-horse I 
 shall have occasion to mention — 
 
 THE CAET-HORSE. 
 
 " Most potent, grave, and reverend signers," 
 though you do not contribute to the show, splendour, 
 
THE CAET-HOESE 189 
 
 or amusement of the aristocracy, yet, as even royal 
 mouths do condescend to the very plebeian ceremony 
 of eating and drinking, and as you greatly conduce to 
 the production of -what royal mouths consume, — I 
 must not have it thought I ought to pass you over in 
 silence ; for when in proper condition, we can, with 
 far greater certainty of not being disappointed, calcu- 
 late on your repaying us for our care than we can on 
 the more valued and valuable Eace-horse doing the 
 same thing ; for though you cannot make our fortune 
 in a day, neither can you mar it in as brief space of 
 time: your slow, but certain, efforts will, with a 
 thrifty master to direct, add daily to his coffers ; and 
 if he performs his part in life as honestly as you do 
 yours, perhaps, on aH average, your joint efforts will 
 produce greater blessings for posterity than does the 
 votary for Derby honours, or the owner that directs, 
 as he perhaps flatters himself he does, the movements 
 of his precarious possession. 
 
 I know of no horse whose movements and habits 
 have undergone no change by lapse of time or im- 
 provement, save one. I must not, in general terms, 
 
190 PROPEE co:«-DiTioir for all horses. 
 
 mentioii the Cart-horse as being in his primitive state, 
 for in the habits and treatment of many horses 
 coming under such appellation, great changes have 
 taken place ; but the farmer's regular Plough and 
 Cart-horse, whose labours are confined to the fann 
 and its fields, has undergone no visible change ; there 
 he is, the same slow animal, and in about the same 
 condition as, probably, was his progenitor centiuies 
 ago, who, as probably, *' Ne'er had changed, or wished 
 to change his place." He eats the same enormous 
 quantity of food as has been consumed by the same 
 class of animal, on the same farm, since a farm it 
 was, — no stylish grooms offer him his stipulated 
 supply of water from a pail — no little urchin of a 
 riding boy is here to count the " go downs ;" — no, the 
 sturdy plough-boy sits whistling on Dobbin's back, 
 while he takes from the accustomed pond his un- 
 measured quantity of water, the only sign of the 
 "enough" being, the animal lifting up his head, 
 giving a lengthened sonorous sigh of satiety, and vo- 
 luntarily turning to go home. No rubbing legs dry 
 here. The walk from the pond to the stable has 
 
THE CAET-HOESE. 191 
 
 shook off a portion of the water, the rest evaporates 
 as it may, an hour or two sooner or later, as the 
 quantity of hair on the legs permits. Can horses 
 treated thus he in condition? may well be asked. 
 Yes, they are, and many, nay, most of them in pro- 
 per condition for Plough Horses; and, what may 
 seem strange to a man not knowing the fact, chapped 
 or cracked heels are more rarely seen in a well-regu- 
 lated cart stable than in a coach, post, or job stable. 
 Wet alone will not crack the heels, it is the external 
 air and the wet that excoriates the skin. The skin 
 of the leg of the Cart-horse is not exposed to the cold 
 air, the hair protects it; cut that close, and then 
 treat him the same as when the natural length of hair 
 was left, and cracked heels, swelled logs, and probably 
 
 grease would soon make their appearance. Besides 
 this, talk of trimming a good-looking or wx-ll-tendcd 
 Cart-horse's heels, the functionaries of his stable 
 would be up in aims at the suggestion ; they would 
 hold it as great a profanation to take the hair from 
 their horse's heels as would a Jew the depriving him 
 of his beard, if he wore one. 
 
192 PEOPEE COKDITIOl!f FOE AXL HOESES. 
 
 We might very naturally expect the gross food, and 
 large quantities of it, the Farmer's horse is allowed 
 to consume, must be injurious to him ; and when we 
 add to that the enormous draughts of water he takes, 
 one would suppose that broken wind must be the 
 certain result of both combined. Such, however, is 
 not found to be the case ; it unquestionably would be 
 so, if the animal was put to work for which his habits 
 and state unfit him ; — in fact, in such state, exertion 
 of any fast sort would probably be death to him. 
 The objectionable effects of large quantity, as food or 
 drink, only show themselves in animals destined to 
 quick movement. The cow, for instance, who vrill 
 consume as much as two horses, is not injured by it, 
 from being allowed to remain in a state of quietude. 
 I have seen hundreds of broken-^vinded horses — 
 I never saw but one broken-"viinded cow : this shows 
 that it is not the precise state that an animal may be 
 in, that is injurious to him ; it only becomes so when 
 the state and the use do not accord. I do not think 
 defective wind — that is, wind defective in itself, when 
 in a quiescent state — is more prevalent among Cai't- 
 
THE CAET-HOESE. 193 
 
 horses than among others : they are not clear enough 
 in their wind for quick exertion, we know ; but not 
 being wanted for it, we do not want the condition 
 that would enable them to perform it ; and one thing 
 I am quite certain of — where one Cart-horse becomes 
 u roarer, we should find half-a-dozen Kace-horses in 
 such state. I do not recollect to have seen more than 
 two or three Cart-horses roarers, though I have scores 
 of Race-horses such.^ 
 
 I hope it will not be thought that I advocate large 
 quantity of food or drink for man or beast: the 
 taking such is far more the result of habit, than 
 caused by its being found necessary or advantageous : 
 the most that can be said of it is, that it may be in- 
 dulged in, under certain circumstances, without pro- 
 ducing seriously injurious efiects. The very slowest 
 of the Cart-horse, though he does well enough, treated 
 as he usually is, would, I am satisfied, do even his 
 slow task with greater ease to himself, if only fed and 
 watered in something like moderation. He is, in 
 ordinary cases, in fair condition for his task, treated 
 as he is — ^but he certainly is not in the best ; though, 
 
 
 
194 PKOPEE COJfDITION FOE AIL HOESES. 
 
 perhaps, in as good as are the generality of horses 
 belonging to the generality of men, for the work they 
 are called on to perform. 
 
 It used to he held as impossible that the Cart-horse 
 could live, if he was forced into a quickened mode of 
 performing his duties; and most absurd was such 
 opinion. Cart-horses can show very considerable 
 activity, when they please to exhibit it for their o^vn 
 gratification ; it is therefore quite fair to call upon 
 them for a little of it for our advantage ; and the 
 more so, as it eventually is advantageous to them 
 also. 
 
 The man must be no visionary sophist or theorist, 
 but a sound logician, and possess wonderful powers 
 of rhetoric, who could persuade a ploughman or 
 ploughboy that he could walk as easily to himself in 
 a more active gait,^ as in the slow laboured one he 
 daily uses ; and far more difficult would it be to 
 persuade him that about half a pound of meat would 
 do, instead of a pound and a half of bacon, for his 
 meal. Still these are little facts that, after he has 
 taken the Queen's money, means are found, without a 
 
THE CAET-HOESE. 195 
 
 logical argument being used, to convince him of; and, 
 after a field day in July, he is perfectly convinced 
 thai his faim condition would not have brought him 
 through. It did for the Farm, but it would not do 
 for the Line. 
 
 We will now look at a description of Cart-horse 
 that has materially changed his habits and form 
 dui'ing the last twenty years — this is the London 
 horse. Brewers, distillers, and others, using the 
 magnificent animals that reaUy ornament our streets, 
 now find these horses do their work better, and are 
 better, for being fitted for, and accustomed to, the 
 doing their work in quicker time. Full of flesh — 
 nay, fat — these horses are, and always wiU be, for 
 several reasons: their work is not fast enough to 
 keep fat down ; their owners like to see them so, for 
 appearance sake; and their men, with a laudable, 
 though perhaps mistaken, pride wiU have them so ; 
 and again, where great weight has to be propelled, 
 though there is no real strength in a mass of flesh, 
 there is weight, and that weight thrown against the 
 collar, is equal, in propelling force, to as much exer- 
 
 o2 
 
196 PEOPEE COI\T)ITIOK- FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 tion on the part of the animal as he would have to 
 use to make up for its loss, if, like the galloping 
 horse, he was drawn fine. Fat does not much im- 
 pede activity, for short continuance ; at least, not so 
 much as its appearance might lead us to suppose it 
 would. "We have some fat men first-rate cricketers. 
 T know a dancing-master of considerahle celebrity ; 
 he is about five feet five or six, and walks an honest 
 fifteen stone. He probably would not much relish 
 " Sir Eoger de Coverley" as a half-hour's wind-up 
 of the evening ; but he walks a quadrille elegantly, 
 trots a polka as lightly as any man, and in a galop I 
 assure my reader he is really a capital goer. 
 
 But though we see the present London Cart-horse 
 even fat, we do not see him the great swag-bellied 
 animal he formerly was ; carters, with better taste 
 than they formerly had, now like to see their horses 
 show activity, give a playful jump, and set off in a 
 trot, at the crack of the whip. They have found 
 that to enable their horses to do this, the state of the 
 cow, as to shape, won't do : they get them into 
 something like form, and many are handsome and 
 
THE CAET-HOESE. 197 
 
 round in their carcases, though still high in flesh : 
 they are, in fact, in condition, — a thing formerly 
 never thought of for such animals. 
 
 There is a smaller sort of dwarf Cart-horse, now 
 much used by railway carriers : these horses do most 
 of their work in a trot. Many Belgic horses are used 
 for this work, as they are usually more active than our 
 Cart-horses have hitherto been. These lighter horses 
 draw great weights; but the London streets now 
 enable them to trot six nules an hour with the same 
 weight behind them that formerly they only walked 
 with, and that at a very slow pace ; but. Cart-horses 
 as these are, they could not perform their duties if 
 they were treated as is Dobbin on the farm. They 
 are not, like him, allowed to swill water at a pond 
 till the dimensions of the abdomen can contain no 
 more : if they were (though treated as they are, 
 they could not take a chariot to a flower-show at 
 Chiswick), they would not be able to trot from the 
 Euston Square terminus to Oxford Street ; or if they 
 did, would give you such audible indications of ponds 
 and green clover as could not be misunderstood. Cart- 
 
198 PEOPEB CONDITION FOR ALL HOESES. 
 
 horses now really require sometliiiig bordering on 
 clearness of wind; for thougli, when we allude to 
 wind, the thought naturally turns to the gallop, it 
 must be recollected any strong exertion calls upon the 
 wind; and trotting, or even walking fast, with a 
 heavy weight to drag, calls very forcibly on it ; if it 
 did not, a broken- winded horse would do such work 
 nearly as well as a sound one, which is by no means 
 the case. 
 
 I have endeavoured to show by the foregoing sheets 
 that so important is proper condition, that from the 
 want of it, the best of horses become but middling 
 performers, and moderate horses all but useless, 
 proper condition is, in fact, vitality to the animal, 
 where exertion is required. I will venture to make 
 a stronger assertion in favour of it, which is this : — 
 
 Let me pick a cheerfully-disposed donkey, and 
 aUow me to get him in such wind and condition as I 
 consider necessary, and he shall in a gallop match 
 beat a very fair pony, if the latter is not in proper 
 condition for the performance. 
 
 J.et us now consider what are the indications l>v 
 
THE CAET-HOESE. 199 
 
 wMch a man is to judge whether his horse is in con- 
 dition or not. 
 
 First, then, most horses (though there are excep- 
 tions), if in proper condition, will look so — that is, will 
 be in proper state as to flesh and coat. If this is the 
 case, and the horse is found to do the work he is 
 wanted to perform without fatigue, or showing any 
 distreis, or rather failure as to wind, such horse we 
 may be pretty sure is in proper condition for his work, 
 though, perhaps, by no means so for other exertion. 
 N^or is it necessary he should be ; he certainly should 
 be in such state as would enable him to do much 
 more than he is usually called on to perform, other- 
 wise I hold he would not do that pleasantly, and this 
 is being what is teimed '' above his work," which 
 every horse should be. 
 
 "We wiU now look to the prevalent symptoms of 
 a horse being out of condition ; these are, exhibiting 
 a wasted form ; or, on the other hand, being over fat, 
 shewing a want of spirit and energy while performing 
 his duties, and wanting appetite during or after it ; a 
 staring coat, and often, as its accompaniment, being 
 
200 PEOPEE CONBITION FOB ALL HOESES. 
 
 hide-bound, feverish symptoms, general debility, with 
 or without swelling of the legs. 
 
 The moment we perceive any of such circumstances, 
 we may be quite certain want of proper condition is 
 the cause ; and the moment we perceive anything is 
 Avrong, in whatever we have or do, the first step 
 should be to alter it ; what that alteration should be, 
 must, of course, depend on the nature of the failing. 
 Horses do not usually go wrong without some obvious 
 cause ; if too thin, they are either ill, are over- worked, 
 or under-fed. It matters not if a horse does but 
 moderate work, if he is, from being a weak one or a 
 bad one, unequal to the task, he is over- worked for 
 Mm ; his being so may arise from not being suited to 
 the particular work, slight though it may be ; but if 
 from any cause the work is more than he can bear, if 
 it is only a mile a day, he must go less, be sold, or be 
 out of condition. If he is too fat, and becomes 
 either troublesome, or indolent and sluggish (and fat 
 will often produce the one as much as the other), he 
 is either over-fed or under- worked ; judgment must 
 point out which cause it proceeds from ; and whether 
 
THE CART-HOESE. 201 
 
 he goes twenty miles a day or one — eats a peek and 
 a half of oats per day, or one quartern — the work must 
 be increased, or the quantity of food diminished, 
 whichever good sense points out as the most sensible 
 alternative. 
 
 Thus much as regards spirits and flesh ; now for 
 the look of the coat in point of health. A horse may 
 be in perfect health with a long coat on him, as well 
 as with a short one, for the one or the other is often 
 natural to particular horses, but the want of a glossy 
 coat, or exhibiting a staring one, is a sure iadicative 
 of wanting condition, whatever may have brought it 
 on ; for this, what I shall call ordinary alteratives 
 will frequently suffice, whether it be more com, 
 more warmth, less work, or more general care, and 
 this must be accompanied by medicinal alteratives, 
 if we mean to regenerate the system, which will be 
 necessary before we can arrive at proper condition : 
 hide -bound, so often attendant on impoverished 
 frame, and staring coat, usually yield to proper 
 feeding, mild physic, and then alteratives. 
 
 Swelled legs are much oftener attributed to over- 
 
202 PEOPEE CONDITIOIf FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 fulness of habit than, I think, experience warrants ; 
 I have more usually found this predisposition to arise 
 from weakness. It may be said, and it is sometimes 
 found to be so, that the legs would not swell so much 
 with the horse at grass as in the stable ; it is therefore 
 inferred that stable -feeding causes the defect, in nine 
 cases in ten ; this is an error ; the legs do not swell 
 perhaps in some cases so much at grass as in the 
 stable; this arises from the constant exercise the horse 
 takes while at libertj^ ; but bring him into the stable, 
 and his legs will be found to swell far more after his 
 grass-feeding than before. I have not had many 
 horses subject to swelling of the legs, but such as I 
 have had, I always found benefitted or cured by the 
 very reverse of grass, namely, beans in addition to 
 theii' oats, and tonics as medicine. Diuretics, that 
 grooms are so fond of, will be found, in most eases, to 
 aggravate the ailment. If the swelling is accompa- 
 nied with great heat, and tension of parts, and more 
 particularly by cracked heels, then mild aperients 
 and fomentation is a good beginning ; but where any 
 iiaccidity exists, stimulants and tonics I have found 
 the sovereign remedy. 
 
THE CAET-HORSE. 203 
 
 It will be seen that the intent of these sheets are, 
 first, to inculcate the absolute necessity of proper 
 condition in our horses ; secondly, to show that the 
 Avant of it often arises from causes that many "dreamt 
 not of;" and last, though not least, to advise the 
 reader never to let the want of condition exist a day, 
 without taking steps to put it to rights. "What such 
 steps should be I have endeavoured to demonstrate, 
 by pointing out probable causes ; so lessening or doing 
 away with such causes is, of course, the reasonable 
 sj^stem to be adopted. If no apparent cause exists 
 or strikes the owner of a horse as existing, a 
 more critical eye or judgment will, probably, at once 
 detect it ; if not, we should be acting quite contrary 
 to our own interest, and at the same time paying a 
 very bad compliment to the number of well-educated 
 men acting as veterinary surgeons, if we hesitated in 
 seeking their assistance ; and, whatever others may 
 say or think of this little work, I am quite sure 
 such professionals wiU say that if it may awaken in 
 the minds of owners of horses a conviction of the 
 all -importance of proper condition, that circumstance 
 
204 PROPEE CONDITION FOE ALL HOESES. 
 
 alone will plead strongly In its favour, as "being one 
 among tlie numberless works of greater merit, that 
 have had utility as the object of the authors in 
 wi'iting them. 
 
 THE END, 
 
 J. BILLING, 
 
 PBINTEB AND 8TEEE0TYPKB, 
 
 WOKING, SUKBEY. 
 
BROOKLANDS: 
 
 IN TWO YOLS., PLATES, 
 BY MAJOR HERBERT BYNG HALL. 
 
 OPINIONS or THE PRESS* 
 
 " Major Hall is now an established writer on rural 
 scenes and sports. He is an ardent lover of them, and 
 he describes them with charming minuteness and pas- 
 sionate eloquence. We recommend the volumes to the 
 immediate attention of our readers ; they will find ster- 
 ling amusement in them." 
 
 JBeU's Life. 
 
 " The Author has got the great secret for this kind 
 of book, of being thoroughly at home himself in every 
 scene he gives you. His Squire Western picture is as 
 true a one as any we have seen for many a long day, 
 and is none the worse for the evident admiration and 
 sympathy the Author has with his subject." 
 
 Sporting Magazine. 
 
oriNioNs or the press. 
 
 *• This work is a pleasant addition to the Sporting 
 Literature of tlie day ; not a sportsman's library in the 
 united kingdom but ought to contain it. There are 
 touches of nature which show that to be a sportsman, it 
 is not necessary not to be a man. For pleasant reading 
 on a ■v\'inter's evening, Brooklands may be hailed with 
 delight."' Wilts Indejpendent. 
 
 " Since the days when Apperley presented to the 
 world his memorable Biography of Jack Mytton, we 
 have had no Sporting Biography in any way compara- 
 ble to Brooklands. The power and ability of Major Hall 
 are here well displayed ; for out of very simple materials 
 he has written a book, every page of which will be 
 perused with pleasure, and remembered with gratifying 
 emotions. Few writers since the days of Nimrod have 
 better described a Sporting day. 
 
 "Brooklands is a book for which every sportsman 
 ought to find a niche in his library." 
 
 Wells Journal. 
 
 "To Sportsmen a brace of eminently attractive 
 volumes." Naval and Military Gazette. 
 
 "Most agreeable volumes, full of SportingAnecdotes." 
 
 Illustrated News. 
 
 " Mr. Herbert Byng Hall has considerable talent for 
 the kind of writing required in a sporting book ; his 
 scenes are lively, exciting, fresh, and interesting." 
 
 Sunday Times. 
 
 " There is abundance of anecdote and considerable 
 humour, and it will be found a most agreeable narrative." 
 
 Western Times. 
 
 LO]S"DON : 
 
 T. C. NEWBY, 30, WELBECK STREET, 
 
 CAVENDISH SQUARE.