TRAINING HORSES AND JOCKEYS IN ENGLAND.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1954, 29 May 1880, Page 3

TRAINING HORSES AND JOCKEYS IN ENGLAND.

In a recent number of “All the Year Round” appears an article entitled “Thoroughbreds at School.” Tho writer gives the following interesting account of the training of a young thoroughbred, intended for a career upon the turf, and also of tho duties of those in connection with it. When the two yearold is entered, and his professional career as a racer in a measure marked out for him, he joins the string of horses in training and lives a life of the strictest regularity, varied only by occasional medicine and repose. If we wish to make a morning call upon him, we must bo afoot betimes. In spring and autumn at sunrise, in winter by candlelight, we cross the neatly gravelled quadrangle, and see the stables already unlocked and alive with busy boys and thoughtful men. The Spankaway colt, like his elders, who have already seen the starter’s flag, and heard the wild roar of the ring, gets his breakfast —a light feed of corn enjoyed while the stable is being brought into that fearful and wonderful state of cleanliness, never seen anywhere else except at tho professionally clean village of Brock. Ho is then rubbed down and prepared generally for his morning’s work, but except in extreme cases —such as that of an early trial, for instance, is not taken out till the boys have had their break fast. When those youths have demolished sufficient bread and butter and tea they mount their horses, all duly clothed, and take t om out for exercise. This excursion lasts some three hours —say from seven to ten, or from eight to eleven, according to the season. The horses are by turn walked, cantered, and galloped, always with special reference to their engagements, and their individual health and constitution. It is this difference between horses which makes the pursuit of training them so peculiarly difficult. One horse runs best in his bones —that is when he carries nothing but hard muscle; another has neither dash nor staying power except when he is “ above himself," and carrying a fair allowance of flesh. Inward fat is, of course, removed before a horse starts for an important engagement, but many are the belter for not being trained too fine. With his three hours’ exorcise the horse’s own work may be said to be over for the day, for on his return ho is thoroughly dressed and watered and shut up till six in the evening, with nothing but a large feed of corn and some sweet hay to keep him company. At one o’clock another banquet takes place. The men and boys attached to the stable sit down to their dinner, the head lad being in the chair. At this, the chief meal of the day, the boys are allowed to give their appetites full play. No check is put on a boy if he chooses to gorge himself like a boa-constrictor, for he will get nothing but bread and butter, or cheese, or bread and milt, till that hour to-morrow. There is, however, a little cherub for ever whispering into the boy’s car that ho had better not eat too much. Tho name of that cherub is Ambition. It speaks plainly enough, “ Eat as much as you like, gorge yourself, and be happy, and you will grow, become happy, and remain a stableboy all the days of your life.” Fare sparingly, keep thin and small, and if you go on improving in your riding, using your head as well as your hands, you will some day be allowed to ride in public, and if clover and honest will become a fashionable light-weight jockey, and win great handicaps —in time, perhaps, the Derby. And your name will be better known than that of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and your income become greater than that of tho Earl of Beaconsfield, K G.” As there is no stint Ja tho midday meal, so is there no surveillance in the leisure hours which follow it. The afternoon is tho holiday time of the training-boy, which ho may, like Holcroft — the author of “The Road to Ruin”—idle away in reading, or employ in any manner most agreeable to himself. At six comes the stable hour—when all are again on duty. This is, in one respect, the most important event of tho day, for after the horses are watered and dressed over, the trainer personally inspects them with tho object of ascertaining whether the exercise of the morning has left any unpleasant mark. At this moment, after five hours’ rest, it is easy to detect any signs of strained tendons, flushed heels, or sore shins. When the horse comes in from exercise, slight injuries are frequently overlooked, but after the animals have had time to cool, the most trivial damage is perceptible by the practised eye. Six o’clock, moreover, is tho show hour, when young Spankaway and his like are exhibited to tho owner and his friends who have mayhap run down to have a glance at the animals whose thews and sinews will carry so much of their money. At eight o’clock the horsrs are finally done up for the night—that is to say, their heads are eased by the loosening of the rack-chain, for racehorses are never in a loose box like hunters. Their beds are ma-’e up for those dainty creatures to sleep, and often snore upon. At nine o’clock tho things like combine in the stables of racehorses turn down and form beds for the boys, who must sleep with tho horses they look after. The animals might get loose or become uneasy in the night, and moreover, on the eve of a great race precautions are necessary to prevent their being got at. In tho days of Holcroft, the boy lay down by the side of his horse, and the dramatist cites it as an instance of animal sagacity, gathered from personal experience, that the animals never lay down upon their companions. This detail has been improved since Holcroft’s time, and the boys all sleep comfortably in a bed—that ancient i watchfulness promoted by the free use of an ashen stick being now held supererogatory.