258 THE COMPLETE HORSEMAN 



marked course which has a landmark every now 

 and again by which a man can estimate how far 

 he has to go. 



All the schooling necessary for a point-to- 

 point is to sharpen the horse up at his fences 

 and give him a schooling gallop in company every 

 now and again in a fresh country where there is a 

 considerable variety of fences. It is better only 

 to take him over one or two big ones for reasons 

 already given. In all probability there will be a 

 stain in the pedigree of the horse that is going to 

 run in the point-to-point. If that should be the 

 case beware of overtraining. A half-bred horse 

 will not stand the galloping a thoroughbred will 

 and it is better to have your horse a little on the 

 jolly side than stale on the day of the race. But 

 he will if a half-bred stand a lot of sharpening at 

 his fences, and unless you do sharpen him you 

 will find him lose a lot of ground at them in a 

 race. I have seen a couple of horses approach 

 a flying jump side by side — one a slow, the other 

 a quick jumper, and a stride or two from the 

 fence the latter had a couple of lengths to the 

 good. He covered the most ground and was the 

 quickest on his legs. 



In a point-to-point race be careful about 

 picking your ground. Avoid crossing deep 

 plough as much as possible, and remember that 

 in all deep country the furrows and the head ridges 

 afford the best going. Above all things if you 

 have the lead at the finish keep your horse moving 

 till you have passed the post. I do not mean 



