322 



ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



Ditch In. He put the stable boy on him, and 

 the horse won in a canter. He won the Metro- 

 poHtan, the Gold Vase at Ascot, and other long 

 distance races, and it was only by chance, by 

 running him over the Ditch In with the stable 

 lad up, that they found he could stay. Up to 

 that time Mr. Savile did not know that 

 Parmesan could stay a little bit. The fact of it 

 is, some horses are not good beginners ; they get 

 chopped for speed to begin with, and never fairly 

 get into their action over short courses. 



" Do you think the feeding and grooming of 

 horses better now than of old? 



" So far as I know, horses have always been 

 fed well since I can remember; they always had 

 what they could eat. The mode of feeding is 

 much the same, I should say. Of course, on that 

 point I cannot speak for other people. I am only 

 speaking within my own knowledge, and cannot 

 go further. 



" In the old days, jockeys vdien wasting would 

 put flannels on and go for a walk nearly every 

 morning. So far as I am concerned, I left off 

 the flannels, and used to walk without them. It 

 took me a bit longer to get the weight off, but 

 I didn't put it on so quick again as they did. I 

 used to take longer walks. Yes, I have been a 

 great walker all my life. My custom was, say 

 in the spring, to begin by walking eight or ten 

 miles a day, increasing the distance gradually 

 till I got up from fifteen to twenty miles a day. 

 Sometimes I went a bit further, and sometimes 

 a bit less, according to circumstances and time. 

 This I kept up until I got down to my weight. 



