EACING BOYS. 341 



wonld, I am quite certain, do it to greater advantage, that is, 

 witli less fatigue. His doing it, ridden as he is, is nothing to 

 the purpose ; it is whether he could not, bj being more scien- 

 tifically managed and ridden, do it either in shorter time, or in 

 the same time with more ease. 



Racing, or rather exercise riding, bojs learn to ride in the 

 directly opposite way. They are never allowed to ride even 

 walking exercise without a saddle and stirrups ; they therefore 

 learn to depend on them ; in short, with their comparatively lit- 

 tle strength, they could not ride the horses they do if they did 

 not. For in very free-going horses and hard pullers, by keep- 

 ing their feet forward, the stirrup acts with them as the toe- 

 board does to a coachman with four horses in hand ; and if we 

 were to select from the best riding boys in all the stables at 

 NcAvmarket, we should not find one who could, like the dealer's 

 lad, jump on a horse and ride him bare-backed; at all events, 

 he could not ride him well ; and indeed I should say the chances 

 are he would tumble off. So much for learning in one way 

 only. Now the dealer's lad could not ride a race-horse as well 

 as the other, but he could ride him ; and when merely following 

 a head lad, probably he would ride him tolerably well, for he is 

 accustomed to ride both with and without stirrups, and is indif- 

 ferent as to which ; and in point of lightness of hand, and mak- 

 ing the most of a good or bad mouth, the dealer's lad beats the 

 ISTewmarket one hollow. This arises from his being taught and 

 expected to make every horse he gets on go as well, and carry 

 himself as handsomely, as he can be made to do ; and as he 

 rides a dozen or more different horses every day, he acquires a 

 hand for every horse. The ISTewmarket boy rides the same 

 horse for months together, and probably not more than half a 

 dozen different ones in as many years. This is therefore by no 

 means the best place to learn hands, though a very good one to 

 teach him to hold strong pullers, which he can do better than 

 the dealer's lad, though he may be physically far stronger. 



The remark might very naturally be made, that if, as I have 

 said, a jockey requires good hands for all sorts of horses, and 

 that riding exercise is not the best school to give such, it must 

 be a bad one to select a jockey from, which I have stated is 

 mostly done. 



