126 A DIVINE RIDING-BOY. 



learnt it, they become very valuable to a trainer. 

 Such a boy will take directions, and implicitly obey 

 them : so would the other if he could ; but he could 

 not, because he would not be a judge of whether he 

 was obeying them or not. Such a lad would never 

 be fit to lead a gallop if he lived to the age of old 

 Parr. I remember once seeing a trainer in (I think) 

 one of the most frantic passions I ever saw a man, 

 and with good reason. He had put a lad on a 

 fidgety flighty horse to get very gentle exercise. 

 This lad was notorious for two qualities; stupidity 

 was one, but perfect steadiness was the other. 



I heard the trainer give this boy these simple direc- 

 tions: "When you get to the Turn-of-the-lands, 

 turn about, let your horse come away of himself; sit 

 still, and keep him at a quite gentle half gallop." The 

 first part the boy obeyed; but he soon allowed his 

 horse to steal away with him, and the trainer saw he 

 was extending his stride every stroke he took. As soon 

 as he got within hail, he held up his hat : the boy took 

 the hint, but instead of getting his horse by degrees 

 off his speed he pulled him off his stride altogether 

 into a canter of six miles an hour. The hat was off 

 again, and gently waved to come on ; and on he did 

 come with a vengeance, at a Leger pace. Up went 

 the hat again, and if ever a man was mad in a tempo- 

 rary way, that trainer was the man. The boy was 

 now near enough to see his master's gesticulations, 

 and stopped his horse the moment he could, and walked 

 him up to us. I saved the poor fellow a thrashing, 

 but he was turned off that evening as incorrigible. 

 He was hired by a clergyman, and made an excellent 

 servant: no power on earth ever could have made 

 him worth a penny in a racing- stable. 



