On the conditioning of horses : hippocomia / [Anon].

  • Bracy Clark
Date:
[1823]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the conditioning of horses : hippocomia / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ON THE CONDITIONING OF HORSES. HIPPOCOMIA. Condition, applied to Horses, is used to signify that a horse is well fed and of good appearance; it also has another signification, that of his being brought by suitable treat- ment into a state of body that gives him the fullest use of all his faculties in performing any very difficult or arduous exertion or exercise, as for hunting, racing, trotting, or the arts of the manege. A horse that is moderately fat may be said to be in good condition, and so he is for sale, or for slow heavy draught service ; but such a one would be totally out of condition for any of the above exercises. To condition a horse for these, a proper share of clean nourishing food and exercise is necessary, as much only as would confer the utmost point of strength and power, without adding any useless incumbrance of matter to the body that might clog the freedom of respiration, or increase the weight and bulk of the animal, and impede rather than assist the functions of the organs, viscera, and limbs. This art, if properly understood, should impart the greatest facility of wind, and join to lightness of the body the greatest possible elasticity and strength of the muscular system. Such is properly the art of training, to which we refer the reader; and in which, though great tilings have been done, more wonderful might be yet effected, if to a well-founded view of nature in these animals was added all that consummate and well-placed art could bring to her assistance; for nature, we are led to beb’eve, has been but too often thwarted instead of assisted by the arts of stable-men, jocldes, and smiths. For though mere practice alone will teach much, yet when combined with a just system or knowledge of cause and effect, the art, whatever it be, may be carried to much higher perfection than it can otherwise. For the present, however, we shall only treat of condition in horses, for the common and ordinary purposes to which they are applied. To stable servants is left in general the physicking, dieting, and conditioning the horse; and a mystery has often, with the ignorant, more charms than the clear face of truth herself. The effects of drugs upon horses are very little known; perhaps, except the piu'gative effect of aloes, and the diuretic effect of soaps and turpentines, and neutral salts, we have scarcely any medicine whose effects we really know upon the horse, or that appears at present likely to be known, yet are grooms ever physicking their horses with some drugs or other good clean food in plenty, dry lofty stables, gentle exercise, and attention to the skin in keeping it clean, will bring almost any horse that is out of con- dition into condition, unless there be some lurking disease ; yet nauseous drugs are added to their food, and they are pleased to fancy that the effects they experience result from these, though it is more probable, as far as they go, and in the uncertain and often idle doses in which they are exhibited, that they prevent, rather than assist, the purpose they have in Hew, and rather disturb their digestion, and weaken the stomach, than assist it; or more certainly render nauseous and loathsome the food they could otherwise relish ; antimony, nitre, brimstone, elecampane root, &c. are among their secrets for this purpose. Antimony is, however, believed, by better judges than these, to affect the skin of the horse, and promote perspiration; this it may possibly do. We may, however, just remark, that where it affects the skin, it has the power of affecting the stomach; but with pigs, horses, and a variety of other animals, it does not affect the one, and one should doubt whether, in these cases, it would affect the other; for in no quantity whatever, and we * Although trifling medicaments for horses I much object to, I shall except the use of stimulant powders composed of the warm spices and metallic salts, a formula for which is given in the Pharmacopoeia Equina, p. 28, of whose bene- ficial effects I think I can with undoubted confidence, and that of several of my friends, vouch for; bringing hide-hound ill-conditioned horses, and the debilitated from over labor and ill-feeding, into a better state and appearance, and with- out doubt by giving a gentle fillip to the digestive and chylo-poietic organs.
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