IN HIS EXERCISE AND SWEAT. 273 



the ground, which is what we do not want him to do. 

 You must, therefore, let him go off his own way as 

 quietly as possible ; and if he settles at any thing like 

 a gentle sweating pace, you must sit very still on him, 

 drop your hands, and keep your temper ; and do not, 

 if you can any way avoid it, move your body from the 

 first position you take. If he makes too free with the 

 pace, do not pull at him, but be perfectly still, and lethim 

 rate himself for the length he chooses, unless you find the 

 length he has gone is beginning to tell on him, and that he 

 is decreasing his pace a little. If so, speak softly to him, 

 and if you think, that without irritating him, you can 

 get a gentle pull, try to do it so as to collect him a 

 little, that he may finish the length (for it is hardly to 

 be called a sweat) without being tired or flurried. If 

 you think the pull will set him agoing again, you had 

 better not attempt it. He must take his chance now, 

 and by and bye, we will try another method with 

 him." But, after the horse is pulled up, if the groom, 

 on questioning the boy, finds that he and the horse 

 have agreed tolerably well in coming so long a length, 

 and that the horse is a good one (under the weights 

 for his year) for the length he can come in his race, 

 the boy must not on any account be taken from him. 



