FENCES AND FENCIXG. 319 



gallop and jump courses of the regulation pattern would find 

 their occupation gone ; but surely this would be no disad- 

 vantage to the better interests of steeple-chasing — the hurdh^s 

 would still be left to them, if there be any real reason (we 

 hold a strong opinion that there is not) why they should 

 be retained in training- stables instead of fulfihing a more suit- 

 able destiny between the shafts of a cab, or possibly as hacks 

 or hunters. 



The proposed course would not be more dangerous ; it 

 would, on the contrary, be very much less so, particularly as a 

 better class of horses, more expert at the game, would gradually 

 come to take part in the contests. It would cost clerks of 

 courses, or lessees of steeple-chase grounds, a little money, 

 and would add greater uncertainty to the issues of races, 

 a matter which would chiefly affect the betting-ring, for a 

 time, at least ; till, in fact, it came to be understood and 

 recognised that inefficient hurdle-racers could not win ever a 

 Country. 



The interest and excitement of a race would be very greatly 

 increased ; there would be more scope for horsemanship, more 

 probability that the best horse would win. For subsequent use 

 as hunters, when they grew too slow for success between the 

 flags, it need scarcely be pointed out that those horses which 

 had competed in races over quasi-natural courses would be of 

 infinitely greater value than the animal which had learnt to 

 gallop over the Sandown fences with a jockey instead of a 

 horseman on his back. 



A few years ago fences were a good deal larger than they 

 are at present, and there was an outcry against them as dan- 

 gerous, an outcry entirely without good reason. They were 

 dangerous, undoubtedly, to the sort of horse that was very 

 often seen, and accidents did happen ; but this was not the 

 fault of the men who arranged the courses. The mis- 

 chief arose from the simple fact that horses were set to do 

 what they had never been taught. An animal, it was 

 thought, could 'jump'— that is, he could get over hurdles 



