24 ON THE STABLES, ETC. 



piece of ground between the clowns and stables, of the 

 length I have been speaking of, unless made on pur- 

 pose, would, I fear, from constant use, very soon re- 

 st^mble a high road. 



It may be thought, by some of my readers, that the 

 horses may be led from the stables to the downs ; and 

 I admit that race-horses should almost at all times be 

 led, when travelling on the road ; but in this instance, 

 and for this distance, there is an objection, and for 

 this reason, — that horses, from having been indulged, 

 as they most of them are in winter, are, in their first 

 coming out in the spring, much too calfish to allow 

 the boys to lead them with any degree of safety. A 

 trainer must be a bad judge, indeed, to suffer his boys 

 to make the attempt. But, although I have objected 

 to horses in training going from the stables to the 

 downs on a hard road, yet I am fully aware that this 

 cannot, at times, be avoided with the best of horses, 

 and it is a thing that frequently occurs to country plate 

 horses and others, which are being led through dif- 

 ferent parts of the kingdom, in travelling from race to 

 race, and are often obliged to stand at inns, a mile, or 

 perhaps, two or three miles distant from the course on 

 which they are going to run. 



Recurring now to the subject of building training 

 stables, I wish to be understood that those I intend to 

 propose, are what is generally called the home stables 

 of a large public racing establishment. These I shall 

 consider as being placed under the direction of a regu- 

 lar training groom, who is in business for himself, and 



