232 ON TRAINING GROOMS 



live or come home in, at pretty near the top of his 

 pace. Unless a trainer ascertains this fact, he would 

 be rather posed, as to what orders he should give his 

 jockey, how the horse he may have been training is to 

 run, — whether the jockey is to make play, or wait with 

 him; or, .if neither of these, to what part of the course 

 he is to keep his place v/ith the company he is in, 

 imtil he comes to that part of it whence the length of 

 rally commences in which he knows his horse can 

 come well home. And very requisite it is for the 

 trainer to know this, and which all the best riding boys 

 ought to be taught, while they are riding different 

 horses in their exercise ; for instructions on these 

 points would be ill-timed at the moment they are being 

 put up to ride in a race. They have enough to do, on 

 those occasions, to observe the orders given them, how 

 the horses they are put on are to be rode in the race. 



I shall now endeavour to teach an exercise boy how 

 to ride, much in the same way I was taught by the 

 different head lads and grooms whom I lived under 

 when I was a boy similarly circumstanced. 



When a young boy is first put to look after a horse, 

 and ride him in his exercise, with a view to give the 

 boy confidence, the horse should be one that is toler- 

 ably quiet both to ride and to dress, and should have 

 been some time in training; so that with little trouble 

 he will keep his place in the gallop, make a run at the 

 end with the other horses, and afterwards be pulled up 

 easily. The stronger work such a horse is in, the less 

 likely he is to be calfish, or to give the boy, what is 



