Page:The History and Delineation of the Horse, in all his Varieties.djvu/274

 had not the gift of speech, nor his master those of sense and feeling, through any other medium, than that most deceptive one of common custom. We read in old Markham, and others of that stamp, of the Horse's "bloody courses" by which, I suppose, he was rattled off his legs, and almost out of his life; of his being sweated in the stable, that is covered with clothes, and whipped and pricked, that he might jump about to excite perspiration, and of his being kept short of meat and water, that he might be light enough to run!

The good sense of modern sportsmen has been nobly and beneficially employed, in reforming the abuses of the old jockey-system, superseding it by one far more moderate, and in most respects, perhaps, nearly allied to attainable perfection. There is, nevertheless, yet room for farther improvement in several respects, the following hints on which I take the liberty to suggest.

I formerly ventured, from various observations, to call in question the necessity of regular sweats, to washy and irritable Horses, which, far from shewing any superfluous flesh, appear already below their work; proposing that such were it to be held necessary to sweat them at all, should have their run of four miles, at a moderate stroke, in their ordinary clothes, and without any additional weight, I farther questioned the propriety and use of those excessive and laborious sweats, usually given to the hardy-constitutioned Horse, in order to deprive his bones of that coat of flesh, which he seemed constantly disposed to carry, in spite of the greatest severity, judging the remedy far worse than the disease, granting plumpness of muscle in the racer, could be fairly deemed either disease or disadvantage. It would be almost impossible for a Horse of steel, to endure with impunity, to his joints and tendons, this ratting every five or six days, with eight or nine stone of living, and perhaps an equal quantity of dead weight upon his back. But he endures all this, and nothing sinister occurs, more properly, nothing is observed, and he cannot tell tales of himself. It happens however, afterwards, that a sinew starts, or that a Horse is not well to run. Indeed, it frequently happens, that a Horse, although naturally good, is seldom well to run. Now I humbly apprehend, that the common sinew-strains are as probable to be incurred in running sweats, with such