i8o SOLDIER AND SPORTSMAN 



fallen on the road, three times cutting his knees, 

 that his original owner sold him and he became the 

 property of Mr Adam Scott. After the horse won 

 at Ayr, Mr Scott declared he would win the 

 National. He subsequently came to grief through 

 slovenliness. 



About the time of that visit to Cheltenham it 

 was the custom to give a horse longer and more 

 severe gallops than is done nowadays. I well 

 remember seeing Jupiter Tonans, a Grand National 

 candidate, do a seven-mile gallop. Jack Jones, 

 the Epsom trainer, was another who believed in 

 very strenuous work. I used often to go over to 

 his stables and watch a horse called The Scot doing 

 his 1884 National preparation; he would gallop 

 from three to four miles almost every day. This 

 horse started favourite, and was the first horse to 

 carry the royal colours in the National. He was 

 ridden by Jack Jones, the Prince of Wales' trainer, 

 who although successful as a steeplechase jockey 

 was not in my opinion a good horseman. He used 

 to ride with his stirrups so long that he could only 

 just reach them, and his legs were so straight that 

 he gave one the idea he was clinging to the saddle. 

 In consequence, he kept an upright position, 

 equivalent to many pounds' increase of weight. It 

 is possible materially to alter the form of a horse 

 by girthing the saddle well back from the withers. 



