60 MECHANICAL AID OF THE RIDER. [CHAP. 



is not only a consequence of distress for wind, but it is a 

 vital necessity when distressed for wind. And the im- 

 possibility to draw breath when off the ground is the 

 reason of the death of horses in steeple -chasing and 

 hurdle-racing ; they die of suffocation. The reason is a 

 sufficient one for the discontinuance of such racing and 

 chasing. 



A mounted horse will overtake a dismounted horse, 

 his superior in speed. It is the common error to 

 suppose that this results from the mechanical assistance 

 -of the rider. The real reason is, that the dismounted 

 horse goes off, like an inexperienced jockey, at his utmost 

 speed. I do not believe that a horse can do this for 

 more than a hundred yards without being distressed for 

 wind (and I speak from experience with Mr. Drummond 

 Hay's barbs at Tangier, which were trained to the feat). 

 The rider starts at a pace which he knows his horse can 

 keep, and the dismounted, horse, though he gains on him 

 at first, comes back to him as the jockeys say : for a horse 

 which has been distressed for wind in the first hundred 



