322 Among Men and Horses. 



hand team to advantage. During the first horse show at 

 Olympia in 1887 (the Jubilee Year), he was asked by the 

 management to give the Prince of Wales and other members 

 of the Royal Family an exhibition of driving with a team 

 of bays which the Wards had entered. When the ring was 

 cleared, he gave a very fine show, and did several times the 

 figure of eight, which requires a considerable amount of skill 

 to perform properly in a small space. As he passed the 

 Prince of Wales, he raised his hand to the brim of his hat, 

 dropped the point of his whip behind his right shoulder by 

 loosening the grip of the finger, and took off his hat. This 

 neat method of making his bow produced quite as great an 

 impression on the spectators as did his admirable driving. 

 His team got first prize, beating two capital ones which be- 

 longed to King, the Piccadilly dealer, and which were tooled 

 by those two crack coachmen, Mr Beckett and Mr M'Adam. 

 The winners were an extraordinary level lot of short-legged 

 cobby bays. They were real coach horses, and fine goers. 

 In 1893, Frank also won the first prize at the Rich- 

 mond Horse Show with Mr Fred. Gooch's showy team of 

 skewbalds. He gave then an exhibition similar to the one 

 at Olympia. Both at the Hall and at Richmond, Mr 

 Butcher gave a very clever exhibition of tandem-driving. 

 The Wards have a big business in teaching driving. The 

 sons do the most of the work ; though some of the pupils, 

 especially those who are Americans, among whom the Wards 

 have a large following, insist on having old Charlie Ward to 

 impart to them the practice and traditions of the road. 



Mr Gooch, whose name I have just mentioned, is one of 

 the best known figures in the horse world. He lives at 

 Windsor, where he has a small but select stable of horses 

 and a private riding-school, in which he ' makes ' the faultless 

 prize winners, for which he is famous at all the principal horse 

 shows. At Dublin in 1893 he was first in the Hacks and 

 Roadsters ; first in double harness, tandem and single 

 harness ; and first and second in the Champion Class. He 



