4o6 RACE RIDING. 



During her future career she never had spurs used with her, 

 and always ran kindly and gamely. 



Many sensible trainers do not allow spurs to be used 

 with their mares when running. 



USE OF THE WHIP. 



When hands and spurs fail to make a horse go fast enough 

 to win his race, we may use the whip if it be a very " near 

 thing," to squeeze the last ounce out of our mount. Horses, 

 when ridden by a workman, will undoubtedly, under the whip, 

 make a last effort which cannot be obtained by any other 

 means of punishment. This effort, speaking in general terms, 

 may make a difference of a length, perhaps even of two 

 lengths, in some rare cases. Recollecting the risk we run of 

 spoiling a horse's temper for the rest of his life by flogging 

 him, we may take for granted that we should not use the 

 whip if we have to trust to it to make up more than two 

 lengths to secure the judge's verdict. A horse, as Edwin 

 Martin, the well-known Newmarket trainer, once remarked to 

 me, cannot at the end of a race go farther than a hundred 

 yards at his very utmost speed without beginning to shorten 

 his stride and go slower ; hence we may conclude that our 

 last resource, the whip, should not be used until we are within 

 a hundred yards of the winning post. Practically . speaking, 

 the whip should be very rarely indeed "picked up" before 

 the last thirty or forty yards, nor should more than two or 

 three cuts be given. When a jockey begins to flog, as many 

 of them do, two or three hundred yards from home, we need 

 not be surprised at seeing the horse, after answering the call 

 for ten or a dozen strides, go slower and slower as he nears 

 the judge's box. The horse is then probably condemned as 

 a rogue, and the jockey is praised as a resolute finisher. Some 

 of our best jockeys now and then flourish the whip at the 

 finish without hitting the horse, as a " bit of kid," or to make 



