50 A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION ON WEIGHT. 



weight on horses is not quite easy to comprehend, 

 when placed in comparison with speed, with good 

 and bad judgment and horsemanship ; nor do I flatter 

 myself with the hope of being able to produce any- 

 thing like a clear definition of the subject. In my 

 own defence I must be allowed to remind my readers, 

 I neither promised nor even insinuated that I would. 

 I confess there is a mystery about weight I cannot 

 quite understand, nor have I ever found the man who 

 did. And again, the extraordinary powers of some 

 horses, when put in competition with others, will beat 

 all calculation on the subject. I may, however, be 

 quite wrong in this conclusion, but I venture to go on. 



A friend of mine, who knew a good deal more than 

 I ever did of sporting matters, though I could not 

 but think sometimes he was a little wild in his 

 opinions, used to say, " If 71b. is equal to a distance 

 in a race, what must it be in a day's hunting ?" Now, 

 taking his first propounder as a datum, his sequitur may 

 be quite appropriate and just. I do not pretend to say 

 he was wrong in his first statement ; but I certainly 

 do say I doubt in a general way the fact. I can 

 conceive two horses, running in together at a certain 

 weight, might afterwards be so weighted as the 7lb. to 

 be equal to a distance ; but I doubt its being so at 

 the weights and lengths of ordinary racing. But we 

 cannot make any close analogy between weight telling 

 in racing and hunting ; for a horse extended as a race- 

 horse is at speed, makes weight tell awfully on him. 

 We will, however, consider this by and by. I am 

 now only considering hunters in speaking of weight. 



I believe it is quite an allowed fact by heavy 

 weights, that a horse which has carried them one 

 season well will (supposing him to continue well and 



