262 ON RIDING A FREE-GOING HORSE 



some time, he also begins to understand the pace 

 horses are occasionally to be rated at in this kind of 

 exercise ; and when three or four, or half a dozen are 

 going to sweat together, the groom, with a view of 

 giving the boy a still better idea of the thing, is very 

 likely to order him with a horse to go in front, and 

 rate the others in their sweats the whole of the way 

 home, and, perhaps, on a horse the boy may not 

 know much about with respect to his powers, either as 

 to stoutness or speed. If the boy should not know 

 this, he might not only overmark his own horse in the 

 pace, but by so doing he would, in all probability, also 

 occasion one or two of the other horses to tire in their 

 sweats, and in coming home in finishing them, they 

 would be quite abroad and uncollected in their stride. 

 Some horses meeting with repetitions of this sort, will 

 lose their tempers to a certain extent, which may be 

 seen by their becoming alarmed when, on sweating 

 mornings, the sweaters are being put on them. 



Now, a good training groom, who has himself been 

 brought up from his boyhood in the stables, is fully 

 aware that those things I have mentioned may happen 

 from the boy's making too free with a horse of which 

 he may, as I have observed, know but little. But the 

 groom, to prevent any thing going wrong, cautions the 

 boy who is supposed to lead the sweat, either in the 

 stable or as he is going along on his way to the 

 ground. He talks to the boy much in the following 

 style, (the sweating ground being in good order, and 

 the horses having been for some time in strong work). 



