1 66 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



too slow to put in training. They argue with consider- 

 able show of reason, that it will prove quite speedy 

 enough for a hunter, but they forget that though a fast 

 horse is by no means indispensable to the chase, a 

 quick one is most conducive to enjoyment when we are 

 compelled to jump all sorts of fences out of all sorts of 

 ground. 



Now a yearling, quick enough on its legs to promise a 

 turn of speed, is pretty sure to be esteemed worth 

 training, nor will it be condemned as useless, till its 

 distance is found to be just short of half-a-mile. In 

 plain English, when it fails under the strain on wind 

 and frame, of galloping at its very best, eight hundred 

 and seventy yards, and " fades to nothing " in the next 

 ten. 



Now this collapse is really more a question of speed 

 than stamina. There is a want of reach or leverage 

 somewhere, that makes its rapid action too laborious to 

 be lasting, but there is no reason why the animal that 

 comes short of five furlongs on the trial-ground, should 

 not hold its own in front, for five miles of a steeple- 

 chase, or fifteen of a run with hounds. 



These, in fact, are the so-called "weeds " that win our 

 cross-country races, and when we reflect on the pace 

 and distance of the Liverpool, four miles and three- 



