418 



THE MODERN SYSTEM 



after, run him with two of the others which 

 were the two first of those beaten ; for you 

 must not run him with the worst or last of the 

 lot. Let him give them both twenty-one 

 pounds. If he does not beat them cleverly, 

 you have no right to expect that he is the 

 best, or nearly the best Horse of his year. I 

 will mention a wonderful trial, when Shark 

 was coming six years old. He ran from the 

 Ditch-in. I borrowed a mare, a good runner, 

 of Mr. Vernon. I think her name was Ata- 

 lanta, but I cannot mention her name for 

 certain. I gave Mr. Vernon fifty guineas for 

 the hire of her ; but, then, I agreed to have 

 her for a fortnight before the race, in our 

 stables, that he should not run her to death, 

 by which I might have been deceived in the 

 trial. I promised him to run her only once, 

 from the Ditch-in, and, on the third day, again 

 one mile only, and then to return her. John 

 Oakley rode Shark, and Anthony Wheatly 

 rode the trial mare. Shark gave all the other 

 Horses, except the mare, twenty-one pounds. 

 There were three others ; my Horse St. 

 George, Salopian, and Jack of Hicton. The 

 mare carried four pounds more than them ; 

 consequently Shark gave her only seventeen 

 pounds. As the mare and the rest of the 

 Horses were coming down that small decli- 

 vity just past the Furzes on the town side, 

 Shark had beaten them full three hundred 

 yards ; so much so, that I rode up to Oakley 

 and told him to pull Shark up, and go in, in 

 the centre of the group. St. George and 

 the mare had a very severe race ; he just 

 won it ; the other two were beaten three or 

 four lengths. 



" St. George had been turned out in a pad- 

 dock, at my own house, in Berkshire, for ten 

 months, and well fed with corn the whole time. 



He was wonderfully improved ; for, before 1 

 turned him out, I ran him with Salopian, 

 across the Flat, and Salopian beat him 

 shamefully. 



Remember, every Horse, including the mare, 

 was of the same age — six years old. Twenty- 

 one pounds is the test of speed ; and this your 

 colt must be able to give to one which is a 

 tolerable good runner, and not to one which 

 cannot run at all, or you have not the best, or 

 nearly the best colt of the year. — So much for 

 racing. 



COMPARATIVE MERITS OF HORSES AND PONIES. 



A good judge of Horseflesh, who has paid 

 considerable attention to this subject, speaks 

 of the merits of the pony, which in point ot 

 economy we think well worthy the attention 

 of our readers. He says : — 



" ^y^ ^"*^ ''^* ^^^ ^ '°"= ^^'^^ heen a fa- 

 vourit?t)pinion of mine, that a good pony is 

 the best rough-and-ready hack in the world 

 In a pony is contained within a small space 

 what one might call the concentrated essence 

 of strength and speed. 



" It is generally supposed, and I am per- 

 suaded of the correctness of the supposition, 

 that if you want to ruin a young Horse, your 

 best plan is to starve him whilst he is young. 

 Every rule, however, has its exception, and 

 the case of the Forest ponies is a most marked 

 exception to this one. Starved in his early 

 youth, the Forester, though small and stuntly 

 in appearance, is endowed generally with a 

 more hardy constitution and more tiring en- 

 durance than any other species of Horse in 

 this country. Until he is three years old the 

 Forest pony is scarcely looked after, and then 

 he is taken up by his poor proprietor, exhibit- 

 ing a shaggy coat, an immense pot-belly, ewe 



