RACE AND SHOWYARD RIDING 241 



{a) as gentlemen ; {b) as farmers ; (c) by Election ; 

 or {d) Yeomen riding at their own Regimental 

 Meeting. Farmers have to be farming 100 

 acres or upwards and Gentlemen must belong 

 to one of certain clubs which are specified. 

 Elected Gentlemen riders pay a fee of one sov. 

 on election or re-election. 



If a young man has plenty of leisure and is a 

 nice weight and very keen he will get a lot of fun 

 out of riding on the fiat, but if his ambition is 

 in this direction he must make up his mind to a 

 great deal of very hard and indeed strenuous 

 labour. To all intents and purposes his life 

 during the racing season will be as hard as that 

 of a professional. To begin with a man cannot 

 ride races unless he rides gallops and riding 

 gallops means rising early every morning, and 

 doing much very hard work before breakfast . And 

 this means breaking in a great deal on his social 

 engagements. A gentleman rider in full practice 

 cannot go out much to evening parties even if 

 evening parties were de regie in Race towns, 

 which they are not. And even if he is not very 

 much troubled with his weight the gentleman 

 rider, if he is at all successful, will find this 

 question of weight begin to worry him. Some 

 friend, knowing he can ride 8 st. 7 lb. without 

 trouble asks him to ride 8 st. 3 lb. — or perhaps 

 that friend is himself, and soon he finds himself 

 on the same lines as the professional jockey 

 exactly. 



If he is really keen he will enjoy himself im- 

 16 



