CHAPTER I 



IT has been said that the true horseman is so 

 born, not made, and that hereditary leanings 

 are sure to manifest themselves during the 

 up-bringing of the child. Every rule has 

 its exceptions to prove its efficacy ; though where 

 this same heredity fails, its forebear, atavism, may 

 manifest itself irregularly and sporadically, missing 

 several generations before revealing itself in some unit 

 whose immediate parentage gave no hint of the trait in 

 question. 



So it must have been in my own case, for I came 

 of a stock sorely afflicted with hippophobia (a word of 

 which I hold, I should imagine, the copyright, and by 

 which I claim to signify, " fear of horses," derived, of 

 course, from the Greek 1777709 — a horse, and ^ojBia 

 fear). That is to say, so far as bestriding the noble 

 steed is concerned ; for some of my near relatives, 

 notably my distinguished " Dads " could handle the 

 ribbons quite efficiently ; but as for throwing a leg 

 over one of his favourites, nothing would have induced 

 him to court the adventure, although an occasion did 

 arrive, when such became inevitable. This was when 

 our late beloved King Edward was married to the " Sea 



I B 



