INTRODUCTION. XV 



thought I should be most likely to bi"ing them into a 

 fit state to run. 



It was at the time of my getting horses leady to run 

 on the same ground with others with which they were 

 engaged, that I again observed great irregularities 

 practised by grooms belonging to different officers, who 

 were entrusted with the training of their masters' 

 horses. 



The treatment generally adopted by these men, (an 

 instance or two excepted), in the working of their 

 horses, amounted, although, I believe, not intention- 

 ally, to little less than downright abuse. The hours 

 of their arrival and departure to and from the exercise 

 ground, were, by many of them, often badly timed ; 

 and the unreasonable length and pace at which some 

 of them went with their horses in their gallops and 

 sweats, appeared to me, from the daily observations I 

 made, to be but ill-adapted, either to the constitutions 

 or tempers of the horses under their care, or indeed, 

 of any others. Some of their horses were to be seen 

 running away, and thereby laming themselves ; others 

 throwing their riders, and going home to their stables. 

 Indeed, all such accidents may be expected to take 

 place in the preparing of horses to run, when they are 

 entrusted to the care of persons who are totally unac- 

 quainted with the regular method of training them. 

 So ignorant, indeed, of this subject are some grooms, 

 that at the commencement of the business, they never 

 once think of the conveniences necessary for the pur- 

 pose — such as proper stables on or near to such ground 



