278 ON THE PULL AND HUSTLE. 



arriving at this part of the course, are most likely to 

 watch his opporutnity, and to get the first effort. Ha- 

 ving done this, with his hands raised off the horse's 

 withers, he occasionally moves them gently up and 

 down, and gives and takes with his reins (but they are 

 not to be slack), pressing the horse's sides at the same 

 time as much as may be necessary with the calves of 

 his legs. Nor does a good jockey, in doing all this, 

 ever forget to catch with his body and hands the stride 

 of the horse. The jockey proceeds thus with his horse 

 in the rally until he comes within a few strides of home^ 

 when, if he finds the race is rather too near to be plea- 

 sant, he gets more determinedly at his horse's head. 

 If he is a game horse, he stabs him a few times with 

 his spurs, then gets up his whip, and perhaps strikes 

 the horse two or three times, if he sees occasion for it, 

 in finishing the race, when within a stride or two of 

 the winning post. 



The horse next to be noticed, and which is the one 

 that requires the rider's exertions to get him along, more 

 particularly in his sweats, is called the craving horse. 



This appellation is applied to many of these horses 

 from their being addicted to certain propensities, which 

 are differently denominated by different training grooms, 

 just according as they find such horses go in their gal- 

 lops or sweats. They describe these by one or more 

 of the following epithets : — a craving, idle, sluggish, 

 sulky, heavy, hanging or lurching sort of horse. 

 These horses seldom give themselves the trouble to 

 swerve or go out; nor are they very apt to tire in 



