Earliest Riding Days 



making of a jockey is a number of different 

 horses for him to perform on, so that he obtains 

 a great deal of variegated practice. Thus as a 

 boy I used to ride out at least three times a 

 day — once with the first lot (including probably 

 three or four gallops), again with the second lot 

 or " spares," and afterwards on yearlings in the 

 afternoon. The last-mentioned experience is ex- 

 cellent and very lively ; it certainly helps to give 

 a man good " hands." The yearlings are usually 

 brisk and amusing ; they do a lot of funny 

 things — not necessarily funny to their pilot unless 

 he is able to enter into the spirit of the joke. 

 Its essence will be lost on him if he finds himself 

 on his back in the mud. 



Then there are the trials. I never used to 

 miss one ; and, of course, they also help in a 

 most important sense to put the finishing touch 

 on a jockey's education. They teach him, in 

 effect, how to "finish," also judgment of pace, 

 when to make his effort, not to be flurried ; they 

 give him confidence, nerve, quickness to seize 

 the psychological moment. A lad who is con- 

 stantly riding in trials must be naturally a dunce 

 if he does not learn something to his advan- 

 tage. Skill comes to him when he takes kindly 

 to the business. His chief drawback is, maybe, 



17 b 



