THE TURF 31 



work, and in about two months before their 

 first engagement comes on, they commence 

 their regular sweats the distance generally 

 four miles for horses four years old and 

 upwards. After their last sweat, the jockeys 

 who are to ride them generally give them a 

 good gallop, by way of feeling their mouths 

 and rousing them, for they are apt to 

 become shifty, as it is termed, with boys> 

 who have not sufficient power over them. 

 The act of sweating the race-horse is always 

 a course of anxiety to his trainer, and parti- 

 cularly so on the eve of a great race for which 

 he may be a favourite. The great weight 

 of clothes with which he is laden is always 

 dangerous, and often fatal, to his legs, and 

 there is generally a spy at hand, to ascertain 

 whether he pulls up sound or lame. Some 

 nonsense has been written by the author of 

 a late work, 1 about omitting sweating in the 

 process of training; but what would the 

 Chifneys say to this? They are acknow- 

 ledged pre-eminent in the art, but they are 

 also acknowledged to be very severe 

 perhaps too much* so with their horses in 

 their work ; and, without sweating them, in 



i Scott's Field Sports. 



