CHAPTER XXIV. 



ON BREAKING RACING-COLTS. 



Noblemen and gentlemen who breed racing stock 

 with a view of either running or selling the produce, 

 generally keep an experienced stud groom to manage 

 an establishment of this description, whose method 

 and manner of handling the young ones, even from 

 the time they are sucklings, is such as will bring them 

 quite gentle and familiar, in comparison with other 

 common stock, which are allowed to range in large 

 fields in a wilder state. The former is certainly an 

 advantage ; for when colts and fillies were a year 

 and a half old, it was the custom with some men who 

 had conveniency of ground for the purpose, and who 

 bred principally for sale, to break and try their young 

 ones, particularly early, so as to ascertain the power of 

 speed each colt or filly possessed ; and according to the 

 result of these trials, they regulated the price of each. 

 On such occasions, young ones were generally taken 



