The Life of a Great Sportsman 



four, and only fell once in all of them, ,and that was at the 

 bank when riding Disturbance in the Sefton Steeplechase, at 

 which time he had had very little practice. 



After getting up I rode him round the course by himself — 

 a very high trial for a young horse, and one that had its 

 reward, for the next day I won the Craven Steeplechase on 

 his back in a canter. Another instance was when riding 

 Burglar in a hunters' steeplechase. Jumping the bank, accord- 

 ing to custom, at its highest point, I obtained such a lead that 

 it was a case of hare and hounds for the rest of the journey — 

 and the hare won. In my opinion, the fences nowadays are 

 just as formidable as ever they were, the reason for the horse 

 apparently making smaller bones of them than formerly being 

 that the "take-off" is so much better. In former days, the 

 rail in front of the fences had quite the appearance of a 

 Leicestershire ox-rail, and though looking a bit more for- 

 midable than those in present use, were, in reality, quite safe 

 to ride fast over. 



The last fence but one before coming to the racecourse 

 used formerly to have quite a dip on the take-off side, and in 

 the second round, when horses were tired and possibly some 

 of their riders as well, was responsible for many a " toss." I 

 well remember in 1873, when Disturbance won, Rhysworth 

 hitting this fence very hard, and Boxall, son of Mr. Chaplin's 

 stud groom, who rode him, did well to keep in the saddle as 

 he did. As it was, he had fairly to bustle his horse to regain 

 his lost ground, and this could not fail to have taken a lot of 

 the steel out of him. To my thinking, it is doubtful policy for 

 owners of candidates for Grand National honours to run them 

 previously in races where the fences are not stiff enough to 

 throw them down, if, as is frequently the case, they try to 

 brush through them. Give them plenty of jumping at home 



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