TRIALS 20I 



quick stroke in the gallop which is essential to speed. 

 They should also be taught to start well and get quickly 

 on their legs. To do this, the rider must have hands 

 good enough to catch his horse by the head and send him 

 '' into his bridle " in a moment. 



Trials. — In order to obtain a satisfactory trial, horses 

 should only be tried when they are quite fit, which ought 

 to be but a few days before the actual race comes off, 

 unless the owner trains his animals specially for a trial, 

 to see, for instance, if they be worth keeping for another 

 season. The trial horse should be in every case equally 

 well trained, and be one whose loresent (not past) public 

 form is thoroughly well known to the trainer. Equally 

 good jockeys should be put up, or, in default, equally bad, 

 and the trial should be ridden out as in a regular race, 

 without favour or affection. Even with every precaution, 

 trials are not always to be relied on, and a margin of 

 10 lbs. for mistakes would be little enough in the gene- 

 rality of cases, for very many horses perform differently 

 in public from what they do in private. Besides, with 

 a lot of horses in a race, one can never tell how it will 

 be run, or what accidents may happen. It is dangerous 

 with horses that are at all shifty to finish a trial at some 

 point before the winning-post on the course on which the 

 race has to come off. 



If an owner tries a lot of fresh horses, and finds but 

 little difference between them, or at least between the 

 best three or four, he may be almost certain that there 

 is not a race-horse among them. According to Admiral 

 Eous there is an average of about three remarkable runners 

 in two thousand. There being so many failures among 



