54 HACKS AND HUNTERS 



a treat for the gods ! Everything that applies to the 

 type in general applies to him only in a greater degree. 

 His form, his air of breeding, intelligence, gaits and 

 heavenly canter, all represent the saddle-horse type 

 in its state of perfection. What is more, through long 

 generations in which the weak and unambitious have 

 been weeded out to make place for those who have 

 made good on the race-track, the thoroughbred pos- 

 sesses more endurance and brains and grit than all the 

 other breeds put together. Given the ability to un- 

 derstand him and to ride him, he makes the real 

 horseman's ideal hack. To him belongs the palm. 

 If he has just come off the race-track, which is usually 

 the case, and has never been carefully and properly 

 broken for saddle work, as is done in England (where 

 they have as many quiet and well-mannered thorough- 

 breds as we have well-mannered Kentucky horses), he 

 will, in all probability, be hot-headed and hard to 

 manage and require patient training. This is not 

 because he is stupid or obstinate, but because he has 

 never been asked to do more than perhaps turn to the 

 right or left, walk, trot, canter and break away from 

 the barrier. The average trainer of race-horses, quite 

 naturally, knows little and cares less about the making 

 of saddle horses, and the jockeys, though they are 

 wonderful judges of pace and know how to get the last 

 ounce of speed out of their mounts, excel in their own 

 line, but are not good riders in the sense that the trainer 

 of saddle horses understands the word. Consequently, 

 the ex-race-horse knows little or nothing about the 

 ordinary rudiments of hacking. If you lose your 

 patience with him, if you ask of him things before he 

 has learned how to do them, you will have a fight on 

 your hands — a fight to the finish — and you deserve 



