98 TREATMENT OF HORSES 



stripped. The boys that sleep in the stable 

 now let down their bed-settles, and go to bed; 

 the groom having put out the lights, he goes 

 out, and locks up the stable door for the night, 

 which, in this month (October), generally takes 

 place at about half past eight o'clock. In the 

 month of November, the stables should be open- 

 ed by the groom at six o'clock in the morning, 

 but now, as at night, candles become necessary. 



Before I proceed further, it may not be out 

 of place here cursorily to observe, that, at 

 the time of my juvenile days as exercise boy, 

 it was the custom with training-grooms to 

 go to their stables in winter as early as three 

 or four o'clock in the morning; the boys being 

 roused up, the horses were fed, stripped, and 

 brushed over; the stables being again set fair, 

 and the bales put up, the boys went to their beds ; 

 and the groom, having put out the lights in the 

 stable, left the door securely locked, and returned 

 to his own bed, where he usually lay till day- 

 light. Grooms went thus early to their stables, 

 not only with a view more equally to divide the 

 time of feeding the horses during the twenty- 

 four hours, but also to occupy the time of the 

 horses by giving them something to do; as it 



