124 RIGHT AT LAST. 



and the heels much less in his races, he would always 

 have done better. 



I could instance, however, several horses which 

 have always been trained by the same men, those not 

 by any means men of superior intellect, yet they have 

 brought these horses out in good form, and have been 

 very successful with them. This, however, in no way 

 militates against my axiom, that the more mind a 

 man possesses the better trainer he is likely to be, pro- 

 vided he uses that mind. Such men as I have alluded 

 to have probably lost their horses many races during 

 the first season they had them under their care, from 

 not discovering for some time how to treat them, so 

 as to bring them out in their best form : like a 

 botch of a watchmaker, who, attempting to regulate 

 your watch, moves the regulator a mile too far to 

 the right, by which he converts it into a locomotive 

 under high pressure; he then moves it as much too 

 far to the left, so when you wish to get up at nine 

 and look at your watch, you find it pointing to a 

 quarter to four. He blunders at last on the right 

 medium; so do such trainers: from finding what does 

 not succeed, they at last find out what does, and then 

 wisely keep to it; whereas a man with more head 

 would have found out in one month what it took them 

 twelve to discover. Still I would rather send an 

 inferior horse where I might suspect he would suffer 

 in a temporary way from want of ability in his trainer, 

 than to where I should be nearly certain he would 

 permanently suffer from want of attention. I should 

 as soon think of asking William Scott to ride a pony 

 for a bridle and saddle, as I should of sending a leather- 

 plater to John to train. People who know little of 

 horse affairs really consider that any stupid blockhead 



