IO2 Among Men and Horses. 



good deal of him at our house and at my club, where he 

 loved to get a game of draughts, at which he was an extra- 

 ordinary fine player. He had a low opinion of my know- 

 ledge of horses; because I am not rich ! Once or twice when 

 he became too unbearable, for he would brook nothing but 

 blind acceptance of his views, I mildly represented that I was 

 a veterinary surgeon ; had written successful books ; had had 

 some experience with horses ; and that I was not altogether 

 ignorant of the subject. * When a man tries to make out 

 to me,' he replied, 'that he knows something about horses, 

 I ask him how much money he has made by his information, 

 and if, like you, he happens to be hard up, I calculate that 

 he has as little knowledge as he has cash.' This remark 

 made me laugh ; for, though uncomplimentary, it contained 

 an evident truth which I had been silly enough to have 

 ignored all my life. He had seen an immense amount of 

 ' show ' life, and I was never tired of listening to the account 

 of his varied experiences ; for it contained many shrewd and 

 sound practical observations about horses and their training. 

 Sample was not merely a horse tamer ; but was also marvel- 

 lously clever in teaching horses all kinds of tricks, particularly 

 for circus work. His practical experience was limited 

 entirely to harness work, and he had no idea of giving a 

 horse what a hunting man would call a good mouth. About 

 teaching a horse to jump in hunting or chasing style, he 

 knew nothing. Almost everything he knew, I was ignor- 

 ant of, and vice versa. As Sample would not acknowledge 

 even to himself, that anyone could possibly know anything 

 about horses which he did not, and as I am nothing, if not 

 a learner, our talk and discussions proved far more beneficial 

 to me, than they were to him. 



His system, I may explain, was simple in the extreme, 

 and could be fully explained in one lesson. One application 

 of it would, so he said, cure all equine faults and vices ; and 

 its effects, so he also insisted, were permanent. To render 

 the payer of the five guineas proof against forgetting his one 



