OF HORSEMANSHIP. 187 



"hunting, the fport was always ready, wh en a fox or 

 hare might not eafily be found ; and this way of 

 matching and running hunters, in order to try their 

 fpeed againfl one another, while they followed the 

 dogs, was thought to be more cheering, both to the 

 riders and horfes, than to make them run fnnply 

 againft one another, or againfl T'ime, as the prefent 

 praftice is. 



There was likewife another Chace, called by horfe- 

 men the IVild-Goofe chace, and thus defcribed *. This 

 chace is never ufed but in Matches only ; where neither 

 th€ hunting the hare, nor the running iTmn-fcents, are 

 able to decide which horfe is better. In this cafe horfe- 

 men found out this chace, which is called the Wild- 

 Goofe chace, from its refemblance to the flight of }Fild- 

 Geefe, which, for the moft part ever fly after one another, 

 and keep an equal diftance as it were from one another. 

 So in this chace, after the horfes are ftarted, and have 

 run twelve fcore yards, then, which ever horfe can 

 get the leading, the other is bound to follow wherever 

 he goes, and that too within a certain diftance, as 

 twice or thrice his length, or elfe to be beaten up 

 (whipped) by the triers (judges) which ride by to fee 

 fair play : and if either horfe get before the other 

 twelve fcore yards, or according as the match is made, 

 then the hinder horfe lofes the match ; and if the 

 horfe which at the beginning was behind, can get before 



^ Markham's Cavalarice, lib. iii. p. 1 1. 



B b 2 that 



