TRIALS. 231 



runners in 2,000. There being so many failures among 

 even English thorough bred stock, it would be unwise 

 for Indian owners of small strings to be over sanguine 

 respecting the subsequent career of their likely, though 

 untried, maiden Walers, Arabs, or Country-breds. Trials 

 between untrained horses are worth very little, because 

 training makes such a vast difference between animals 

 of different stamps, for light carcassed, impetuous non- 

 stayers, who would probably never be fit for anything 

 but selling races, would, perhaps, in a trial for a short 

 distance, beat with ease a race-horse equally untrained, 

 who might require months of galloping to get fit. 

 Really valuable horses, which can race and stay, are the 

 very kind that require a long time, and an enormous 

 amount of work to develop their powers to the utmost ; 

 while impetuous non-stayers, that are often hardly 

 worth their keep, will always be more or less in condi- 

 tion by dancing about, and fretting, whenever they are 

 taken out of the stable. 



I am very averse to trials, as a general rule, for they 

 are liable to upset a horse in his work and to cause 

 accidents, while, with the best arrangements, they are 

 often most misleading as to the idea they give of actual 

 form. 



We have considered the work a horse may get, if 

 there be five or six months to prepare him in before he 

 runs ; but if the time be limited to only two or three, 

 a dose of physic on commencing will be generally re- 

 quired, for one must hurry on the work, which, with 

 high feeding, if physic be not given, is apt to upset a 

 horse's system and make him feverish, thereby rendering 



