RIDING THE RACE. 3^5 



ing a free-going horse together over some three or four miles 

 of country is a considerable tax on a rider's strength, even when 

 the animal goes kindly — and all chasers do not run thus. 

 Sudden emergencies arise in the course of a race, and in these 

 presence of mind with readiness of resource, most admirable 

 in themselves, are of little avail if the rider has not strength to 

 carry out ^Yhat skill and courage suggest. Unless a race is won 

 with altogether exceptional ease, the rider has to 'finish,' as the 

 term goes ; and this is naturally beyond the capacity of the 

 man who has trained on imperial pints of champagne, and who 

 is borne into the straight run home with no breath in his body 

 or power in his arms, hardly able to sit upright in his saddle, as 

 riders are sometimes seen at this period of a struggle. 



The rider who employs his own strength judiciously saves 

 the strength of his horse ; and the contrary of this is equally 

 true. Therefore — putting aside for the moment the undoubted 

 fact that knack and knowledge will often accomplish what mus- 

 cular force is unable to effect — if a man desire to win his race, 

 it is necessary that he should be really fit to ride when he has 

 mounted his horse ; the more so as the nerves depend so 

 greatly on the physical health. 



The rider will do well, if it be possible, to make the ac- 

 quaintance of the animal he is to steer before the day of the 

 race. He will of course have hints given him with regard to 

 the horse's disposition ; but, as horses and horsemen vary so 

 much in their style of going and riding, a gallop or two will be 

 of infinitely more use than anything which can be conveyed 

 in words. It is most desirable, moreover, even in these days 

 when, as was remarked in a previous chapter, most steeple-chase 

 courses are unfortunately of a set pattern, to walk round the 

 course and examine the country that has to be crossed. The 

 going may be heavy in certain parts, and these will naturally 

 be bad places for a man to drive his horse ; he will see also 

 not merely the nature of the fences, but what the taking-off and 

 landing are like. About a made water-jump it is often boggy, 

 for instance, and he will note where it is soundest. 



