166 TRAINING. 



bolter, or a ewe-necked determined stargazer, a 

 martingale should never be used. English young 

 colts, half-broken, may require different kinds 

 of reins and martingales, but a decent rider can 

 dispense with them all upon an Arab. 



TRAINING WEIGHT, PHYSIC, EXERCISE, ETC. 



You should always train with as near the 

 weight as possible that he is to carry in the 

 race ; never more than an extra half stone, and 

 that is half a stone too much for a slight horse. 

 A strong-legged, straight-spined, high caste ani- 

 mal may not prove the worse for it, but a 

 slighter horse will have his stride shortened an 

 inch in the course of three months, and an inch 

 in every stride will make two or three lengths 

 at the end of a race.* You ought also to have 



* There are very few Arabs in India whose owners' weigh 

 above ten and a half stone^, that have not their action in 

 some degree hurt ; and a light weight, who is conscious of 

 the nimble active step of a perfectly fresh nag, would detect 

 at once a kind of shortened step, or slight deficiency of spring. 

 By a perfectly fresh nag, I mean a horse that has been taken 

 care of so long as he had a colt's tooth in his mouth, and never 

 had more than eight stone on his back up to five years old. 

 I have mounted numerous "beautiful light going horses" 

 for sale, the property of owners of about eleven stone : in 

 lieu, however, of fine airy action, they hammered away, in 



