312 SWEATING HORSES. 



present clay; and it was most likely, from the 

 mismanagement of people in former times, who 

 had the care of such horses, that their tempers 

 have been totally spoiled ; and whatever habits of 

 vice were thus acquired, they have occasionally 

 transmitted them to their progeny. To this 

 source I attribute the disposition to vice so fre- 

 quently observable in the craving horses while 

 in training ; and let me here observe, that such 

 horses are never more disposed to shew their 

 bad dispositions than at the time of their being 

 scraped or dressed in the stables or rubbing- 

 houses, after being sweated. 



As we have already noticed, with regard to 

 the first and second classes, as soon as they are 

 pulled up from their sweats, they are to be 

 ridden into the rubbing-house, where they are 

 turned round in the stalls; their girths being 

 slacked, and their additional clothes thrown on 

 them, they are then allowed to stand to blow 

 for the usual period, or until they are fit to 

 be scraped. 



It was the custom in my time to select the 

 smallest of the boys to take charge of each horse's 

 head. This was done by the groom for the pur- 



