Breaking Yearlings. 137 



victim retains such a vivid recollection of his first experience 

 of a railway journey that it will require many subsequent 

 trips completely to restore his confidence. Later on in his 

 career his prospects in some valuable engagement might be 

 seriously discounted by a rough railway journey to the scene 

 of action. If economy is essential, two colts, or two fillies, 

 could be turned loose together in one horse-box from which 

 all partitions had been removed. But whatever plan is 

 adopted, it should be a fixed rule not to tie a yearling up 

 on its first railway journey. If the stalls or partitions are 

 not taken out, the yearling should be held by the leading 

 rein; if the partitions are removed, all hinges, projecting 

 bolts, etc., should be protected with hay-bands, and the 

 yearling completely stripped of all tack and turned loose. 



Though not more prone to sentimentality than others of 

 equally prosaic occupation, the stud groom, having safely 

 delivered his charges to the trainer, is often conscious of 

 somewhat mixed feelings. His sense of relief at being freed 

 from a great responsibility is tinged with regret at parting 

 with animals at whose births he has officiated, and whose 

 subsequent daily growth and well-being have been the con- 

 stant objects of his solicitous care. The silver lining to his 

 cloud of regret is, in this case, an unshakable faith that his 

 late proteges will shortly be making Turf history of the most 

 glorious kind, and that the home stud, and incidentally him- 

 self, will bask in the reflected glory thereof. In some cases 

 he also comforts himself that it is " Au-Revoir and not 

 Good-bye," and looks confidently forward to the day when, 

 having added such names as "Epsom," " Doncaster," 

 "Ascot," and "Goodwood" to the war-worn "colours," 

 they will return to the well-remembered paddocks to receive 

 a warm welcome from their old stud groom, and to become 

 the sires and dams of future equine champions. 



