FAMOUS CHASERS AND THEIR RIDERS. 359 



tinguished himself greatly on Foreigner, an extremely awkward 

 horse, which, it is stated in sporting magazines of the day, 

 'was backed over and over a2:ain to kill his rider aa:ainst 

 winning.' 



On one occasion, when a very great deal depended on 

 Olliver winning a steeple-chase with a horse of his own, he 

 begged Mason to ride for him, and Jim's first proceeding was 

 to take off the terribly severe bit which Olliver had put on and 

 to substitute an ordinary double-reined snaffle. The occur- 

 rence suppoits what has been said of the relative capacity of 

 the two men. 



A very famous amateur who early distinguished himself was 

 Captain Little, the rider of Chandler in 1S48. Chandler was 

 bred by a farmer, and was not by any means a good-looking 

 horse, but he early showed promise, and when a noble patron 

 of the sport asked his breeder when going through the stables 

 one day whether he had anything likely to win a steeple-chase, 

 Chandler was shown. ' I wouldn't have such a fiddle headed 

 brute in my stable ! ' was the answer. 



A short time afterwards the horse ran and won in 2:ood 

 company, carrying his breeder's colours. The patron afore- 

 said ran down from the stand and eagerly asked the owner, so 

 striking w^as the performance, what horse it was that had won 

 the race in such excellent style. 



' That's the fiddle-headed brute your lordship wouldn't 

 have in your stable 1' the ow^ier replied, and a bargain was 

 speedily made. 



At Warwick, in March 1847, Chandler ran in a steeple- 

 chase over a natural course and accomplished a feat which is 

 generally believed to be unsurpassed. The brook w^as swollen 

 to the dimensions of a small river — it was impossible, indeed, to 

 tell how far on each side the overflow extended ; but Chandler, 

 coming dow^n to the jump at a great pace, cleared the water at 

 a bound. Onlookers w^ere so struck that the distance from the 

 hoof-marks on the taking-off to the hoof-marks on the landing 

 side w^as measured, and it w^as found that the horse had jumped 



