150 RIDING 



on the rails is likely to be the shortest way round ; and if a 

 jockey does not thoroughly know the course he is going to ride 

 on, or if, knowing it, the weather or anything else has affected 

 the going, he should carefully walk it before the race. At Good- 

 wood in 1888, for instance, the extraordinary amount of heavy 

 rain which fell had converted portions of the course into quag- 

 mire, some places were worse than others, and the horse that 

 galloped on comparatively sound going derived great benefit 

 from his rider's judicious selection of the ground. At Goodwood 

 the turf is usually hard, as indeed it is elsewhere at the latter end 

 of July or the beginning of August, and probably few jockeys 

 took, the pains to examine ground so well known, but those who 

 did certainly profited by their forethought. The tradition that 

 Fordham always tried for the sheep track at the Cambridgeshire 

 Hill is well founded. ' It was easier going on that track if I 

 could get there comfortably, I used to think,' he once remarked 

 to the present writer. By such apparent trifles the results of 

 great events may be influenced. 



But it is in the finish that the power and skill of a great 

 horseman are chiefly manifested, and the incapacity of the in- 

 different jockey is most apparent, although perhaps too little 

 consideration is bestowed upon the fact that it is by judicious 

 riding in the earlier stages of the race that the jockey finds 

 himself well placed when the moment arrives for him to sit 

 down in the saddle and make his effort. His attitude in the 

 first part of the race is almost too well known to need comment. 

 The idea is to take all possible weight off the horse's back, and 

 for this reason the jockey rises in his stirrups, bearing his 

 weight partly upon them and partly upon his knees, which 

 firmly grip the saddle, while his hands are well down on the 

 horse's withers, and so he speeds along, taking care not to 

 shift his position, for that would interfere with his horse's 

 action, keeping perfectly still so far as his body is concerned, 

 .but without rigidity ; the hands and arms of course adapt 

 themselves to the horse's stride. 



Some few exceptionally lazy horses will run for a long way 



