176 TRAINING IN INDIA 



Ponies, 13 hands and under, had best be trained for 

 from a quarter to half a mile. Although there have been 

 many instances — take Chieftain and Eex — of Arab gal- 

 loways being able to hold their own, at even weights, 

 with Arabs of all sizes, still, in ninety-nine cases out of 

 a hundred, allowance for height — 3 lbs. the \ inch — will 

 not bring a 13 and 13.2 pony together, nor the latter with 

 one of 14 hands, provided the galloway has any pretensions 

 to racing form. But if an owner happens to possess such 

 a rarity, like what Abdool Eayman and Eex were, he had 

 better train him for distances at which he will meet the 

 class bigger than himself; for if the animal can succeed 

 with them, he will have little difficulty in beating those 

 of his own size, even in races shorter than those for which 

 he was prepared. 



For " all Arabs," \\ miles will be a fair average dis- 

 tance over w^hich to train them. Half a mile less will 

 usually answer for Australians and English horses. 



Quite as much, if not more, depends on a horse's 

 stable management, as on the work he gets, in bringing 

 him fit to the starting-post. Many horses have been got 

 into good condition, and have won important races, by 

 being simply hacked, with, now and then, perhaps, a 

 canter on a soft bit of turf; or even by doing nothing 

 more than trotting work in a very light trap, when their 

 legs have been particularly infirm. But I doubt whether 

 a horse has ever been brought within a stone of his proper 

 form when he has been but indifferently looked after in 

 the stable. 



Training Quarters. — The worst of the hot weather 

 being over by the beginning of July, the horses may be 



