A good deal has been said about exertion in other parts of this work, and it is not necessary to say much here. In preparing for fast work the rule is to pro-coed from less to more, from a short to a longer distance, from a slow to a faster pace, always by small degrees. In the first week most of the exercise may be given at a walk. This pace has been objected to by Nimrod. He says it injures the legs, and produces spavin. He is in error : there is no pace at which the legs are so safe. When the horse is kept at it for several successive hours, he may be fatigued; but she fatigue falls upon the muscles, not upon the joints nor the tendons. The horse may lie a great deal after much walking exercise, but it rarely makes him lame. Cart-horses often travel ten hours a day, for months together; and though all their work is performed at a walk, they have no spavin till they are overburdened, and not often then.

Walking exercise empties the bowels - gives the horse good use of his limbs - gives him an appetite for food - promotes the secretion of the lungs, the skin, and the bowels - and when much is given, under a good rider, it teaches the horse to walk quickly and gracefully. Even at the beginning, however, all the exercise need not be given at a walk. The horse, whatever be his condition, is always able to take some faster exertion. The walk, the trot, the canter, and the gallop, may alternate one with another, no more of either being exacted than the horse can bear without injury. But when intended to perform his work at any particular pace, at cantering for example, he is to get as much of that as it is safe to give him. A lady's horse would be ill prepared if most of his exertion were a trot. The preparatory exertion should re semble the work as soon and as far as it is safe to give it.

The slow paces make the horse leg-weary. If he "lie more than six hours out of the twenty-four, his legs being sound, he is getting too much exercise. Fast paces endanger the lungs of an untrained horse. The rider should know when he has gone as far and as fast as it is safe to go. Existing distress is indicated by signs which do not require much experience to recognise them. They are described in connexion with the accidents of work. The signs which indicate the approach of distress are not so well marked, but they are quite visible. The first is rapid and short respiration; the second frequent protrusion of the muzzle, as if the horse wanted more rein; and the third is a deep, prolonged inspiration, something like a sigh, in which the rider feels his legs thrown apart by the expansion of the horse's chest. Quickness of respiration is a necessary consequence of exertion, and it is a symptom of distress only when excessively rapid and short. The protrusion of the muzzle shows that the horse is at nearly all he can do. This is not to be mistaken for the pull of a horse eager to get away; he quickens his pace as he gets his head free. When distress is coming, the head is often darted downward or forward; and though more rein be given, the head still dives, but the horse goes no faster.

He need not, in all cases, be pulled up for this; it may be sufficient to slacken the pace for a few hundred yards, to go slower, until he recover a little. The deep sight demands immediate relief; to continue longer at the same pace, even for no more than two hundred yards, is attended with considerable risk. The horse may be fairly over-marked. He may proceed a short distance, but he ought to be held in if possible, or he ought to stand quite still, which is the safer plan, until he recovers his wind. At work, circumstances may demand a continuation of the pace, notwithstanding this sign of distress; but, in training, the deep inspiration should stop it at once.

The severest exertion given to the horse in training is that termed sweating. A certain distance is aimed at; but the groom generally knows pretty well how the horse will bear it before he it is sent to it. He is previously tried in short gallops, which are lengthened by degrees. Horses usually snort, after performing a little smart work; they clear the nostrils by a sudden and forcible expiration. This act does not resemble sneezing nor coughing. The nostrils play to and fro as the air is expelled, and make a peculiar noise, which is well enough expressed by the term snorting. It is quite voluntary : sneezing and coughing are not. Many horses do it when starting, but the groom attends to it particularly after a trial gallop. Should the horse clear his nose almost the instant he is pulled up, he has wind enough to go farther and faster in his next gallop; should a minute elapse ere he snorts, still the pace and distance may be increased, but not much. In the next trial, should the horse stand for two minutes without snorting, his gallop has been severe enough for his condition, and it may have been too much so. He does not snort till his breathing is easy; and the more he is unwinded the more time he takes to recover.

It seems, however, that some horses do not snort as soon as they recover freedom of breathing. I have watched one for half an hour, after a severe run, without noticing him clear the nostrils; and I have repeatedly observed that, especially after long-continued exertion, the horse does not snort for a good while after his breathing is quite tranquil.

The ground upon which exertion is given is a matter of some consequence. A hard stony surface injures the feet and the legs, and a fall upon it is a serious affair. Deep ground, that in which the foot sinks, demands great exertion to get through it, and it hazards the legs, though the rider may have judgment enough to save the lungs. Rough irregular ground gives the legs so many twists, that a fast pace is very apt to produce a sprain. The best is that which resembles a race-course - soft, yet firm.

The kind and degree of exertion must vary with the condition of the horse; the mode of giving it must vary a little according to his disposition. A lazy horse is generally robust, and not much disposed to over-exert himself; he may require a good deal of urging to keep him at the pace, and make him go the distance. He is apt to stop when not inclined to run. If allowed to have his own way a few times at the beginning, it becomes a difficult process to train him, and still more difficult to work him. On the course he may choose to lose a race, and in the field he may fancy he has done enough before he has well begun. A horse of this kind requires to be well mounted. In his training exertion he must be ridden by one who has strength to manage him, and judgment enough to distinguish between laziness and distress.

There are many other horses quite different from this kind. They are timid, easily agitated, easily injured, and very apt to over-exert themselves. The least harsh treatment alarms them; they tremble, the limbs totter, the stride is irregular, unsteady; the horse is so precipitate in his movements that he is often lamed or thrown down. Without whip or spur, such a horse would run till he died. Even a little extra exertion puts him off his feed. These horses are generally less robust than those of phlegmatic temperament: they should seldom carry much weight; yet a thoughtless boy is almost sure to abuse such a horse. He ought to be treated with great gentleness. Some are least alarmed when ridden alone, others when they have companions, which, however, ought not to be sluggards, for a timid horse is in terror when he sees or hears another punished. In general, severe exertion should not always be given on the same ground. After once or twice, the horses get alarmed whenever they arrive there, and know what is coming. But the same place may be used for both the severe and the gentle exertion; and, by stealing slowly away at first, the horse may do his work before he knows that he has begun it.

The warning of severe exertion gives him more alarm than the exertion itself.

Indeed all horses should start slowly. A gentle pace prepares the legs, and puts every organ in order for a severe task. It gives the horse time to empty his bowels, and to see the ground, and enables the rider to feel lameness should there he any not previously observed.