84 HASTY CONCLUSIONS. 



For these reasons I admire the steeplechaser and 

 flying hunter more than any other class of horse living ; 

 because they are possessed of more admirable points 

 than those of any other class. 



They have more power, courage, and action than the 

 flat racer, and more blood, speed, and activity than 

 the common hunter and hack. Truly a first-class 

 steeplechase horse of the present day is a magnificent 

 animal. I have often heard it remarked that the 

 steeplechaser of late years is but a racing weed — a 

 mere cast-off from the racing stable, and utterly 

 unfit for coping with a good honest horse of his own 

 class ; but such conclusions are the result of superficial 

 investigation. The truth is, that the steeplechaser is a 

 cast-off from the training stable, not because he is not 

 a magnificently-bred and shaped animal, but because 

 he cannot cope with his fellows successfully in a 'parti- 

 cular performance. And to assert that the steeple- 

 chaser of these days is inferior to that of the past, either 

 in blood, size, power, or performances, is truly monstrous. 



If blood, power, and qualifications be carefully 

 weighed, where have there been seen in any age such 

 fine specimens of the steeplechaser as Bourton, Emblem, 

 Emigrant, Lincoln, The Huntsman, and Fly fisher, not 

 to mention such weight-carriers as Penarth, Bridegroom, 

 Medora, Acrobat, and Express, cum multis aliis ? 



Surely persons capable of judging of a horse's merits 

 in the smallest degree must be joking when they view 

 such animals and assert that they are not capable of 

 carrying weight ! For not one of the above-mentioned 



