RIDING LADS. 149 



being told correctly. If the lad be willing and intelli- 

 gent under this system, and be given instructions as to 

 holding the hands, keeping the proper position of the 

 leg and foot, judging the right length of stirrup, &c., he 

 ought to learn to ride a training gallop fairly, in say 

 three months. The trainer may teach the lad the rates of 

 speed by a conventional standard (vide Chapter on Train- 

 ing) ; or by the exact division of time ; as take for instance 

 that the length of the race course is 1^ miles, that the 

 horse in question can do this, with the boy up, at full speed 

 in 2 m. 50 s., and that the order for the training gallop is 

 " once round at eight annas ; " then the time the horse 

 should take would be 5 m. 40 s. This I know is slower than 

 the accepted idea of what half speed should be ; but if a 

 faster pace be required, it is just as easy, and perhaps 

 tends less to confuse the lad, to increase the number of 

 annas ordered. Here I take for granted that the race 

 course is level, like almost all our Indian ones. At 

 Dehra Doon, for instance which is nearly flat for the 

 first half mile, dowri"hili for nearly 5 furlongs, pretty 

 level for a quarter of a mile, and then up-hill for about 

 the last half mile from home further directions would 

 be requisite to teach the lad to slightly vary the pace, 

 as the nature of the ground would require. 



