THE SHOW HORSE 83 



he may be, he cannot see from the side of the 

 ring those important factors which so frequently 

 determine the judge's verdict. Let me give an 

 instance of this from my own experience. There 

 was a good class of three-year-olds in the ring 

 and the best-looking horse in the lot was moved 

 on down and down till he was amongst the h.c. 

 division. I was standing beside one of the best 

 judges of a horse in England, and I asked him 

 what was the fault of the horse in question that 

 he should be treated so. The answer was, none 

 that he could see, and that he thought the horse 

 the best in the class. Some three weeks later I 

 was judging with one of the judges at the show in 

 question as a colleague, and the class was practi- 

 cally a repetition of the one I had been criticising. 

 I brought the horse that I thought had been ill- 

 used in at the head of the line. Then when we 

 began to inspect them individually I said to my 

 colleague '' I suppose he must go down " and he 

 acquiesced. And so he went down till he was 

 about in the same place as he had occupied at 

 the previous show. He had little bad feet, and 

 I believe the showyard knew him no more. 



Another instance may be given showing the 

 vagaries of which a horse is occasionally capable. 

 I was judging with a well-known and very good 

 judge and we both agreed that a certain horse 

 was the best-looking horse in the class. When 

 he was run out he made a bad show, and he got 

 moved down till he stood about fourth. My 

 colleague remarked it was a pity that he moved 



