ilit BREAKING AND TRAINING. 



Mu'iiy of the starters should not, as now, be left, blown, crippled, or 

 exhausted, in the middle of the course. 



There is an enemy which the trainer little suspects, but which affects 

 the health and the honesty of his establishment. No regulation can be 

 rigidly carried out, when its adoption is dependent upon the whim and 

 the humor of those undersized lads who lounge about the door of every 

 training stable. These boys are not half employed : they delight to 

 excel each other in "larks," in daring, and in mischief. They are very 

 seldom trustworthy. The reason which causes them to be retained, is 

 the lightness of their bodies. Their duty is to groom and to ride the 

 animals which are placed under the trainer's charge. But the first busi- 

 ness is lightened by a series of unfeeling antics ; the last is the act which 

 very few of these youths can properly perform. They get into the 

 saddle and manage to remain there ; but how far they study anything 

 more than that, is demonstrated by so few of the urchins being pro- 

 moted to jockeys, for which calling the trainer's stable should be the 

 regular entrance. 



Many a horse will refuse to win a race from stubbornness of temper. 

 When the way is clear before it, the racer not unfrequently "shuts up," 

 and cannot be induced to exert its ability or to win. Whence is derived 

 that perversity which loves to thwart the power a slave lives but to 

 obey ? It is not natural to the breed or to the tribe. Pass through a 

 flock of yearlings, and the path is interrupted, positively impeded, by a 

 host of velvet noses, each demanding to be noticed. Way is difficult to 

 be made through so much importunate affection ! However, walk down 

 the gangway of the two-year old stalls in any trainer's stable, and " 'ware 

 horse," "'ware heels," is frequently shouted out, while the excess of 

 white displayed by each animal's eye palpably denotes the reason of the 

 warning. 



The trainer may as well break the leg of a colt as ruin its temper. 

 The spirit cannot be right, when the temper, which governs it, is per- 

 manently warped. The power to win is of no service, if the inclination 

 to exert it does not also exist. The boys tease and plague the creatures, 

 whose fate is, by the rules of training, not so blissful as to admit of such 

 insults being patiently endured. The act offends, and engenders a 

 desire of resentment, which constitutes the "jolly fun" of the lads. 

 The more excitable a colt may be, the more valuable it is likely to prove 

 to its owner ; but in proportion to its value is the animal exposed to the 

 pranks which may ruin its chances in the struggle. These things, of 

 course, are not practiced with the trainer's knowledge ; but, nevertheless, 

 they are all but universal, and will become more general if the custom 

 of employing uneducated boys is not abolished. 



