30 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



ones will take in a single horse at l 10s. 6d., or 

 from that to 35 shillings. Quiet owners who do not 

 like the responsibility of running horses on their 

 own account, and yet, with the precedent of Alice 

 Hawthorne (the easiest creeping goer we ever saw) 

 and Rataplan before their eyes, do not like to let 

 them for the season, make bargains with trainers to 

 take charge of them gratis, and to keep half their 

 winnings. Private trainers, who number some 32 out 

 of the 160 odd who teach youthful pasterns the way 

 they should go in Great Britain, have a house and 

 other perquisites, exclusive often shillings a-week for 

 boarding each lad, and salaries varying according to 

 the size of the stud, from 200 to 400 a-year. The 

 yearlings generally reach them, if possible, early in 

 July, and go into the breaker's hands at once, with 

 a view to being tried before the important January 

 nominations are made. Horses used formerly to go 

 home during the winter months, but as the racing 

 season has gradually crept on from seven to nine 

 months, this system is fast going out. Trainers also 

 set their faces against green meat, and like to have 

 their horses kept well up during November and De- 

 cember, that they may put them into gentle work 

 early in January for the spring handicaps. There is 

 one point of etiquette on which they are very justly 

 tenacious, viz., that owners should not drop into the 

 stables to see their horses without giving them some 

 notice, if it be only ten minutes, as they naturally 

 consider that such sudden visits savour of a want of 

 confidence. Small owners, on the other hand, are 

 obliged to be very careful about sending one or two 

 horses to a great public stable, where there are more 

 influential owners with large strings, as the trainer 

 generally cares very little about their patronage in 

 comparison, and their horses, unless very first-rate, 

 too often get used in trials without their knowledge, 

 or made thoroughly stale with leading gallops. The 



