166 HACKS AND HUNTERS 



it is more "sporting" to exhibit without knowing who 

 the judge is. This might be fair in England, where 

 there are no two contending types of saddle horses, 

 or here, if it were possible to establish a recognized 

 "type," but otherwise it is grossly unfair to compel 

 the exhibitor to go to the trouble and expense of ship- 

 ping an animal to a distant show, only to find that he 

 might just as well have stayed at home, since the judge 

 in question can't abide this particular type of horse. 

 There is perhaps another adjacent show going on at 

 the same time, to which he could just as well have 

 shipped and where he would have been able to win 

 under a judge who knew, appreciated, and gave a fair 

 chance to the type which his entries represented. For 

 this reason, I think that unless absolutely unavoid- 

 able, horse-show managements have no right to change 

 the judges after the prize list has been published, and 

 gentlemen, who have been asked to act as judges, 

 should be too gentlemanly to consent to act, knowing 

 all the time that they do not intend to be present. 



The next thing to do in studying the prize list, is to 

 select and enter only in those classes for which the 

 horse is suited. Careful and judicious "placing," both 

 as to the judges before whom the horse is to appear 

 and the classes in which he will be exhibited, is the 

 secret of many successes. I have so often seen owners 

 bitterly disappointed at their failure to win a ribbon, 

 when the sole reason was because the horse was placed 

 in the wrong class, either a road hack appearing in a 

 park hack class or an animal who was really a splendid 

 lightweight specimen, attempting to win a ribbon in 

 a middleweight class. This sort of wrong placing is for- 

 tunately being eliminated in the hunter classes at Madi- 

 son Square Garden and elsewhere, and if a horse is 



