RACE HOUSES AND MEASURING RODS. 105 



allow that therefore the long stride must have the 

 advantage on all occasions. 



Let us suppose a case with which horses have 

 nothing directly to do. Two men are set to measure 

 a distance, say half a mile : the one is furnished with 

 a rod ten feet long, the other with one eleven for the 

 purpose. They both put down and take up their rods 

 at the same time ; and after having put down and 

 taken up their rods one hundred times, the man with 

 the ten-foot rod finds himself a hundred feet behind ; 

 thus far a trainer's predilection in favour of stride 

 is borne out. 



But we have not done yet, and will have another 

 bout at measuring. This time we get a quick active 

 fellow, and put the ten-foot rod in his hand : now 

 instead of taking measure for measure with his eleven- 

 foot opponent, he removes his rod one hundred and 

 eleven times, while the other removes his one hundred 

 only, and is consequently ten feet in advance. " This," 

 as the legal gentlemen say, " is my case." 



We will now see how far it bears affinity to two 

 horses running ; for they may be said to measure a 

 length of ground by their stride, as my supposed men 

 have by their measuring rods. 



Various are the lengths of stride of the race-horse, 

 varying of course according to the horse's size and 

 style of going, and equally so according to the rate of 

 speed he is going at: we will say this varies from 

 fifteen to twenty-two feet in different paces in different 

 horses : we will take as an average, when going at 

 three-quarters speed, seventeen feet as a fair stride. 

 Thus, supposing each stride to be the same, it would 

 take him two hundred and ninety-three strides and a 

 fraction to cover a mile. A horse going with him 



