Train, v. To draw along; to entice; to draw by artifice or stratagem; to educate, to bring up.
Train, s. Artifice, stratagem of enticement, the tail of a bird; a line of powder reaching to the mine.
Training, p. The act of putting into condition for racing, pugilism, or other violent exercises.
Training Racehorses.—A month is the least time that can be allowed to draw the horse’s body clear, and to refine his wind to that degree of perfection that is attainable by art.
It is first necessary to take an exact view of his body, whether he be high or low in flesh, and it is also necessary to consider whether he be dull or heavy, or brisk and lively when abroad. If he appear dull and heavy and there is reason to suppose it is owing to too hard riding, or, as the jockeys express it, to some grease that has been dissolved in exercise, and has not been removed by scouring, then the proper remedy is half an ounce of diapente, given in a pint of good sack; this will at once remove the cause, and revive the creature’s spirits. After this, for the first week of the month, he is to be fed with oats, bread, and split beans, sometimes the one and sometimes the other, as he likes best, and always leaving some in the locker, that he may feed at leisure whilst left alone. At feeding time, whatever is left of this must be removed and fresh given, by these means the creature will soon become high-spirited, wanton, and full of play. Every day he must be rode out on airing, and every other day it will be proper to increase his exercise, but not so as to make him perspire too much. The beans and oats should be put in a bag, and beaten till the hulls are all off, and then winnowed clean, and the bread, instead of being chipped in the common way, should have the crust cut clean off. If the horse be in good health and in spirits, when taken up for its month’s preparation the diapente must be omitted, and the chief business will be to give him good food, and so much exercise as will keep him in wind, without over-sweating or tiring him; when he takes larger exercise afterwards, towards the end of the month, it will be proper to have some horses to run against him. This will put him on his mettle, and the beating them will give him spirits: this, however, is to be cautiously observed, that he has not a blood heat (at full speed) given him for ten days or a fortnight before the race, and that the last heat that is given him the day before the race must be in his clothes, this will make him run with much more vigour, when stripped for the race, and feeling the cold wind on every part.
In the second week, the horse should have the same food, and more exercise. In the last fortnight, he must have dried oats, that have been hulled by beating. After this, they are to be wetted in a quantity of whites of eggs beaten up, and then laid out in the sun to dry, and when as dry as before the horse is to have them. This sort of food is very light of digestion, and very good for the creature’s wind. The beans in this case should be given more sparingly, and the bread should be made of three parts wheat, and one part beans; if he should become costive, under this course, he must then have some ale and whites of eggs beaten together, this will cool him and keep his body moist. In the last week, the mash is to be omitted, and barley-water given him in its place every day until the day before the race; he should have his fill of hay at first, and then given more sparingly, that he may have time to digest it, and on the morning of the race-day he must have a toast or two soaked in sack, and the same just before he is let out to the field. This is an excellent method, because the two extremes of fullness and fasting are at this time to be equally avoided, the one hurting his wind, and the other occasioning faintness that may make him lose. After he has had his food, the litter is to be shook up, and the stable kept quiet that he may be disturbed by nothing till he is taken out to run.
The training of Jockeys.—John Arnall, when rider to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, was desired to reduce himself as much as he possibly could, to enable him to ride some favourite horse, without his carrying more weight than was agreed upon; in consequence of which, he abstained from animal and even farinaceous food for eight succeeding days, and the only substitute was now and then a piece of apple; he was not injured by it at the time, and is now in good health: added to which, Dennis Fitzpatrick, a person at this time continually employed as a rider, declares that he is less fatigued by riding, and has more strength to contend with a determined horse, in a severe race, when moderately reduced, than when allowed to live as he pleased, although he never weighs more than nine stone, and frequently has reduced himself to seven stone seven pounds.
REPLY TO SIR JOHN SINCLAIR’S QUERIES BY