STABLE OPERATIONS. 77 



pleasure or business, content themselves with an indifferent 

 groom, one, it may be, who is partly employed about the 

 warehouse, the garden, or the dwelling-house. The horse 

 or horses can not, of course, be so well tended. They may 

 be very well cleaned, but such men can not put the horses 

 into hunting condition, nor maintain them in it, nor bestow all 

 the care that hunters require after a day of severe exertion. 

 For the horses kept by merchants about town, who seldom 

 ride more than ten or twelve miles a-day at a gentle pace, 

 nothing of this kind is required, and a groom who would make 

 a sorry figure in the hunting stable may serve them perfectly 

 well. The man only requires some little dexterity in going 

 about a horse, and a little experience of his habits in refer- 

 ence to food, drink, and work. These he may acquire with- 

 out a long apprenticeship. He may obtain them in farm, liv- 

 ery, or posting stables. The thorough-bred groom can learn 

 his business completely only under an experienced senior, 

 who may have the charge of racing, hunting, or carriage 

 horses. 



In the racing-stables a boy is appointed to each horse, and 

 these are superintended by the head-groom, or trainer, and 

 his assistant, who is termed head-lad. 



Boys. — Under the direction and discipline of a good groom, 

 boys of from fourteen to seventeen are soon taught to perform 

 the duties of the stable. But until they have been well 

 trained, and they must be trained while flexible, they are 

 good for very little. It is only in a stable where the disci- 

 pline never relaxes that they can learn their business well, 

 and acquire those orderly habits which in a manner distin- 

 guish the taught from the untaught. 



The boys employed about towns to look after a horse, or a 

 horse and gig, generally come from the country, where they 

 have seen some service among the cart-horses. Some of 

 these boys are quiet, attentive, able to do something, and to 

 learn more without much instruction ; but a great many of 

 them are awkward, thoughtless, and mischievous, not to be 

 depended upon. It is not that their work is difficult to learn 

 or to perform, but there is no keeping them at it. They are 

 so fond of play, and so little accustomed to restraint, that one 

 half of their work is always neglected, and the other half is 

 never done in proper times. Everything is to seek when it 

 is wanted, and when found not fit for use. Some are much 

 worse than others. Many can attend to nothing. Their 

 work is made subservient to their play. One will be sent to 



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