REGULARITY NOT ALWAYS SUCCESSFUL. 95 



mechanically take down the bales, set beds fair, feed 

 their horses, put on the rack- chains, strip and dress 

 them, saddle them, put up the bales, and then look 

 out for their own feed : they as regularly return, take 

 down bales, bridle their horses, mount, and ride them 

 out : they walk them all round the yard for a time : 

 though some may be as wild as hawks, others requiring 

 kicking along, still as a rule they all do the same 

 thing. They are then exercised, take their gallops 

 according to their age, are walked, get their water, 

 are dressed, shut up, and so forth. This is all right 

 and proper ; the trainer has done his duty ; so have 

 the boys ; that is, they have done their bare duty, and 

 there has been no wilful neglect : in short, all has been 

 done that with horses of ordinary constitutions, appe- 

 tites, rate of going, and temper, could be required : 

 but all horses are not possessed of all these ordinary 

 qualities; consequently ordinary treatment won't do 

 at all. The trainer does what perhaps brings a horse 

 into condition, but few trouble their heads as to what 

 will bring him into the very best. So, supposing first 

 the horse in point of condition to be six or seven 

 pounds worse than he might be brought to by study- 

 ing temper, and a variety of other things and then 

 in point of weight, distance, or the mode of using him 

 in a race, we also make him six or seven pounds below 

 what he would be under different circumstances we 

 get our horse nearly a stone under his real mark, or 

 something bordering on a distance ; yet under such 

 disadvantages I am satisfied may run. In some proof 

 of this : 



Four years since, a little mare was offered me for 

 sale at a very moderate price ; she was then four years 

 old, and had been running with little success. The 



