128 THE HUXTTXC; FIELD 



buys what he calls a " printed book" about them, and thinks 

 himself equal to Field, Mavor, or Goodwin. The real require- 

 ments of horses are very few and \'ery simple : good food, good 

 grooming, good stables, and work proportionate to the food 

 and constitution. Apportioning the food to the work is a 

 thing that never enters the heads of nine-tenths of the horse 

 hisscrs calling themselves Grooms ; their great anxiety alwa3'S 

 being to get as much food down each horse's throat as they 

 possibly can. They are quite unhappy if they can't cram four 

 feeds down a day. We would rather see them keen about 

 giving them plenty of exercise than plenty of corn. It is in 

 the exercising department that half the stable servants fail. 

 Young lads are especially slack, and some have the still worse 

 trick of trying to put two hours' exercise into one by hurrying, 

 trotting and cantering. We have seen urchins rushing with 

 their horses out of the stables, jumping up, snatching their 

 bridles, and cutting awa}- as if they were riding for the mid- 

 wife, instead of going out in that leisurely, orderly way, that 

 belongs peculiarly to the word exercise — exercise in contra- 

 distinction to errands or work. Indeed there is not one boy 

 in fiftj- fit to be trusted with horses, we mean fit to be left in 

 the entire charge of them. They should ahvaj's have a man 

 over them. Let the reader recall the equestrian performances 

 of his own boyish days, the hurried and protracted ride, the 

 secret gallop, the stealthy leap, the quiet race, and say whether 

 he would have been a fit person to trust with a valuable horse 

 at that time of life. Talk of years of discretion at one-and- 

 twenty ! Let a man of forty ask himself if he was discreet at 

 one-and-twenty. 



Exercising before breakfast is a great promoter of short 

 commons in the walking department, and a great inducement 

 for an early return. \\c do not know why Grooms should 

 like having their horses out before the world is properly aired, 

 but certainly the managers of large studs generally adhere to 



