HURDLE-RACING. 343 



over the first three or four, and then tires. He has not been 

 used at home to the pace at which the races are run on a 

 course ; so that unless he has been tried by an experienced 

 trainer, or has shown capacity in a race, it is dangerous to 

 trust him. 



The hurdle-racer must jump without taking anything out of 

 himself. An idea of what is requisite will be gained when it is 

 said that men who have ridden such horses as Chandos, perfect 

 at the game, declare that they have barely felt the animal jump. 

 The whole action was so smooth and easy that the horse glided 

 over his hurdles with no perceptible exertion, the leap being no 

 more than an ordinary stride of the gallop. The nearer the 

 horse can be brought to this state of perfection, the greater are 

 his chances of winning races ; and here the need of schooling 

 and practice will be seen. On the flat, over two miles, one 

 horse may be fourteen pounds better than another ; but over 

 hurdles, if the latter has been really well schooled and the 

 former imperfectly, the good jumper is likely to win. The other 

 makes up his ground between the hurdles, but loses his advan- 

 tage when he jumps ; while at each hurdle the slower horse 

 gains a couple of lengths or so. and, what is no less important, 

 jumps so easily that he takes very much less out of himself than 

 his speedier, but at the same time clumsier, adversary. Few 

 hurdle-races are run without, in a greater or less degree, making 

 this fact plain, as the reader will perceive if he watches care- 

 fully how, though two horses rise at the same moment, head 

 and head, as they land one shoots forwards and is on his 

 way, while the other descends to the ground with a jerk and 

 has to be, as it were, set going again after his companion who 

 is well in advance. Superior speed may enable the second to 

 pick up the lost distance, but at the next hurdles the same 

 thing is repeated. 



A horse that chances his hurdles, refusing to rise at them, 

 is a dangerous brute, whether the flights are loosely stuck into 

 the ground or firmly fixed ; but the horse which 'jumps too 

 big,' to use the technical phrase, is very unlikely to win races. 



