132 HORSE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA. 



take a pull at your horse for a few strides if you find 

 him distressed, and make your effort the moment you 

 think you can get home." And then if the animal gets 

 beaten, the probability is that the winner was the better 

 horse of the two, at the weights and distance run, a fact 

 which owners of beaten horses often overlook. 



It sometimes happens that the riders of the two best 

 horses mutually wait too long on each other, and allow 

 their field a start that cannot be recovered in time. 



Inexperienced riders are often deluded into waiting, 

 when they ought to keep going on, by a jockey pretend- 

 ing to flog, when in reality he is but whipping his boot. 

 This dodge is, of course, only tried on by the rider of 

 the speedier horse of the two, in the hope of inducing 

 the man on the stayer to slacken speed, on the supposi- 

 tion that he has the race in hand and that there is no 

 use hurrying. I need hardly say that, if a man per- 

 ceives his opponent trying on these tactics, he should at 

 once increase his speed, supposing of course that there 

 were no other horse formidable in the race. 



Asa rule, in a match, if one's opponent be on a " cur." 

 one should try to jump off with the lead, and cut out 

 the running at once, whatever sort of a horse one may 

 be on, provided he be but game ; for nothing makes a 

 "rogue" shut up so soon, as being collared. A jockey 

 on such a horse should do all he can to persuade him 

 that he is running away, and, generally, the more the 

 man on him pulls, the faster will he go. Many horses 

 have to be ridden in this fashion. 



Giving half a bottle of port or sherry, or their equi- 

 valent in spirits and water before a race, is a well known 



