226 ON SADDLE HORSE 



a stable-man, will very much depend on what stables 

 he may have been brought up in, or rather, the de- 

 scription of horses he may have been accustomed to 

 have placed under his care. According to the different 

 purposes for which pleasure-horses are employed, so 

 must their condition be varied. Race-horses are to be 

 treated differently from hunters, and hunters differently 

 from saddle-horses. Such men as are termed saddle- 

 horse or pad grooms, are those who, in the commence- 

 ment of their career, may be found to have been living, 

 as boys, in livery and horse-dealers' stables, in London, 

 and many of our princij)al towns. In those stables, 

 they obtain such knowledge in regard to the cleaning 

 and riding of horses, as brings them somewhat familiar 

 with the animal. This knowledge enables them, as 

 they approach the state of manhood, to undertake the 

 mechanical care (if I may be allowed the expression) 

 of such saddle-horses as they may be engaged to look 

 after. These grooms merely give food and water to 

 horses at stated periods in the course of the day, clean 

 them, and keep them well clothed, and when their 

 masters do not ride the horses out, give them such ex- 

 ercise as they think necessary to keep them in health. 

 If such horses appear tolerably fresh, kind in their 

 skins, and clean on their legs, they are considered by 

 the grooms, as also by their masters, to be in excellent 

 condition, and, for most of the purposes for which 

 they are intended, they may be so ; indeed, some of 

 them may be in good condition, which I will account 

 for hereafter. These saddle-horse grooms know no- 



