2oo KINGSCLERE 



practice what he had seen me do that afternoon. I 

 was only too glad to present him with the gear 

 which I had brought with me, and which I hope 

 has proved useful to him. We had a long talk 

 about breaking-in young horses for racing, and he 

 thoroughly agreed with me that yearlings would be 

 greatly benefited by a course of modified school 

 work before being ridden in regular exercise." I 

 quite approve of the gentle treatment adopted by 

 Captain Hayes, and saw much to admire in his 

 method of handling the yearling. I am persuaded, 

 however, that a longer and more gradual course of 

 instruction is preferable. To me, this forcing pro- 

 cess is like cramming a schoolboy for an examination 

 — you may obtain immediate results, but they are 

 not lasting. 



1 However, to resume. It is just after we have 

 arrived at the period which was being dealt with in 

 the early life of the thoroughbred when I digressed 

 to refer to Captain Hayes and our meeting at Kings- 

 clere that the trainer's anxious time begins. It is 

 then that his art and practice make themselves dis- 

 tinctly apparent. The work is never-ending, and 

 it cannot be successfully accomplished according to 

 any fixed set of rules. Race-horses differ in tem- 

 perament, in constitution, in soundness. Hence the 

 impossibility of dealing with them as a drill-sergeant 

 would lick a number of raw recruits into shape. 

 Horses are like human beings, there are no two 

 alike, and inasmuch as each has to do his best on his 

 own individual account, individual characteristics and 



