1 82 TRAINING IN INDIA 



Avoid trying your horses against each other, or against 

 the watch. 



On finishing a gallop, always turn round towards the 

 inside of the curve on which you are galloping. If the 

 direction be in a straight line, turn in preference to 

 the right-about, as you would on a right-handed course. 

 This practice will tend to prevent horses learning to bolt 

 off the course ; for when they do so, they almost invariably 

 go off towards the outside, and not to the inside of it. 



On a race-course, finish the gallop a couple of hundred 

 yards beyond the winning-post, and then gradually 

 pull up. 



If a rubbing-down shed be used, it should be placed 

 beyond the winning-post, and on the inside of the course. 



One should avoid galloping horses in clothing, as it 

 cramps their action, and the extra weight tends to shorten 

 their stride and strain their legs. 



I cannot help condemning the practice many adopt, of 

 having their horses galloped constantly in heavy clothing. 

 An English jockey, whose lowest riding weight is, say, 



8 St., will, when not wasting, and when wearing warm 

 clothes on a cold morning, weigh close upon, if not quite, 



9 St. To this add 7 or 8 lbs. for the saddle, 2 to 3 lbs. for 

 the bridle and martingale, and from 14 to 21 lbs. for the 

 clothing, and we shall have the animal carrying about 

 11 St., which is a truly preposterous weight for a training 

 gallop. And then men who allow this will, when their 

 horses become lame or get slow, wonder how in the world 

 it occurred ! If a trainer wants to get the fat off a horse, 

 by all means let him put clothing on, and give the animal 

 his sweat a little later than usual in the morning, at a 



