230 ON TRAINING GROOMS 



limbed, with large hands and feet, and their parents 

 were of tall stature, they can seldom be made jockeys; 

 they no sooner acquire a knowledge of their business, 

 and become useful to their employers, than they get 

 too big and too heavy to ride young ones in strong 

 work, or indeed, any sort of race-horse, and a groom 

 is often obliged to discharge such boys on this ac- 

 count. 



If boys were invariably chosen as I have recom- 

 mended, it would, I think, be by far the best plan, for 

 training grooms who have under their charge a large 

 and permanent racing establishment, to have these boys 

 articled to them. They could not then so readily go 

 away when they thought proper, leaving the groom 

 quite at a loss how to supply the place of a boy, who 

 may have been looking after a horse difficult both to 

 ride and to clean. Another disgraceful jDractice would 

 thereby be put a stop to, — that of one groom enticing 

 a good riding boy away from another, which, I am 

 sorry to say, was formerly by no means an uncommon 

 occurrence; an attempt having twice been made to 

 entice me away from stables when a boy. But the 

 grooms of the present day are, I hope, above all such 

 mean and unfair practices. Good riding boys in a 

 training stable, I may say are invaluable; in fact, there 

 is no training horses properly without them. I shall, 

 therefore, enter minutely into the subject of how they 

 are to be taught their duty, both as regards riding 

 the horses when at exercise, as well as the attention 

 which is necessary to be paid to them in the stables. 



