CARELESSNESS OE GEO QMS. 29 



horses through doorways ; as often as not they lead 

 the way, dragging the horse after them, and the 

 result may be, and often is, an injury to the horse's 

 hip. Many a horse is set ' down at hip,' as it is 

 termed, from their carelessness in this respect. A 

 good groom would, of course, never be guilty of 

 such carelessness ; but how many really good 

 grooms is one fortunate enough to secure in a life- 

 time ? 



It may be thought that I am perhaps very much 

 ' down on ' grooms. So I am on the bad and care- 

 less, and rightly, too, I consider. They deserve 

 to be blamed, and, what is more, they know it too ; 

 no one knows it better. But for a really honest, 

 hard-working groom I have every respect. Groom- 

 ing is hard and monotonous work : day in, day out, 

 the work is the same, with little or no variety, and 

 with far too often no commendation — nay, barely 

 any notice taken of the results of his labour. The 

 master, perhaps, very rarely visits his stable, 

 although morning after morning it is in spick 

 and span order, and arranged as if his coming were 

 expected. But more of this later on ; I am some- 

 what straying from my subject, and I wish to keep 

 its several details as separate as I possibly can. 



