MILITARY STEEPLECHASING 251 



— a certain section cry out for professional or skilled 

 gentlemen riders to minimise the risk of speculation. 



Although not so in name, a match which took place 

 on Monday the i8th of November early in the century, 

 near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was to all intents and pur- 

 poses a small military meeting. The 4th Dragoon 

 Guards appear to have been quartered at Newcastle, 

 and the competitors in the race (presumably owned by 

 officers of the regiment) were a chestnut horse 6 years 

 old, ridden by Capt. Boyd, 12 st. 10 lb. ; the other a 

 black horse 1 2 years old, ridden by the owner, Lieut. 

 Maga, I 2 St. 8 lb, A four-mile course was selected from 

 Benerell westward towards Throckley Fell. All the 

 fences were marked out, and at each — there were thirty- 

 two jumps — was posted a soldier, so that this would 

 appear to have been really about the earliest attempt to 

 indicate the direction to be taken by the riders ; but 

 neither of those in this race had any knowledge of the 

 country. The band and colours of the regiment were 

 placed at the winning-post, where also stood the officers 

 of the regiment and their friends. Capt. Boyd won 

 the race in twenty minutes, according to the official 

 timekeeper. The old horse ridden by Lieut. Maga 

 was favourite at starting, and he appeared to have the 

 foot of his opponent ; but he refused several times and 

 was "rather shy at the leaps, and lost a good deal of 

 ground in crossing Denton Burn, when he was too near 

 home to make it up again," and in this way, so far as I 

 can discover, military steeplechasing arose. 



It is probably to the officers of the 5th Dragoon 

 Guards that we owe the establishment of the Grand 

 Military Steeplechases. In the early thirties, an officer 

 described as Mr. J. F. Scott left the regiment, and, like 

 a good sportsman, he gave a cup to be run for annually 

 for horses belonging to officers of that distinguished 

 corps, over a three-mile course; the weight, 12 st. 7 lb. 

 each. Accounts of very few of these steeplechases have 



