308 ON BREAKING RACING COLTS. 



crowd; they should be suffered to stand at first and 

 look on. They are to be brought by degrees into 

 the most crowded parts, obsei'ving, at the same time, 

 to avoid any risk. They may be a little alarmed 

 at first, but with good riding boys up, and kind 

 and gentle treatment, they soon acquire confidence, 

 even in places of this sort ; and it is absolutely 

 necessary to take them into such situations, for unless 

 they will come freely up the rails of a course and 

 boldly face the crowd in running, they can be but 

 of little use as race-horses. In riding them on the 

 high roads to a market, some of them may be alarmed 

 at the difTerent objects they meet. Whenever this 

 occurs, they are by no means to be resolutely forced 

 up to them. It is, I admit, by no means uncommon, 

 to see men of all descriptions forcing their horses close 

 up to the object which has alarmed them, and some 

 who allow their passions to overcome their cooler 

 judgment, are apt to punish their horses very severely 

 on such occasions. I confess, that when I was a lad, 

 and have at times been riding at exercise by myself, I 

 have often been guilty of this fault when my horse 

 has started. To say nothing of the cruelty of such 

 treatment, it unquestionably betrays a very defective 

 judgment, for when horses are thus treated, they be- 

 come alarmed from two causes — the object they see is 

 the one cause, and the correction they dread from the 

 rider is the other. When they are frightened, no 

 matter where or at what object, they should be treated 

 kindly and made much of, and they should be kept 



