250 STEEPLECHASING 



but soldiers, as time went on, instituted meetings of 

 their own, until at the present time we have a good 

 many regimental races — the Grand Military Meeting, for 

 some time held in conjunction with the Grand National 

 Hunt Meeting ; the Household Brigade Steeplechases, 

 and other gatherings. Military meetings are among the 

 pleasantest and best arranged of those which take place 

 during the year. The men of the different regiments 

 lend willing and valuable aid ; hospitality is dispensed 

 with no niggard hand, and everything is delightful. A 

 few years ago, however, some one asked in one of the 

 sporting papers whether our officers rode as well now as 

 they did in the "fifties" and "sixties," and that letter 

 led to a somewhat prolonged correspondence. Of course 

 those who regarded military meetings purely from a 

 betting standpoint thought that the soldiers had fallen 

 off in their riding, and the upshot was that some people 

 thought a military meeting should be conducted some- 

 what on these simple lines : — The officers to arrange the 

 meetings, buy their horses, pay the training bills, give 

 every one as much luncheon and champagne as he 

 wanted, and put up professional riders. 



Since the riding of a steeplechase demanded a style 

 of horsemanship of its own, owing to flagged and made 

 courses, and the alteration of fences, the soldier as well 

 as any other amateur who has not ridden gallops under 

 a trainer's eye, and devoted much time and attention to 

 the acquisition of a proper style, is naturally at a dis- 

 advantage when competing against some one who has 

 made a study of steeplechase riding and has enjoyed 

 plenty of practice. If, however, military steeplechase 

 meetings were given up there would at once be a cry 

 that our soldiers are not what they were ; and then when 

 they hold their meetings and ride their own horses — this 

 is just what it was the aim of the National Hunt Steeple- 

 chase, when first founded, to induce other owners to do 



