OWNERS AND OWNING 71 



Let me remark that one of the chief follies 

 owners commit is a refusal to see what is before 

 their eyes and to accept what they know to be 

 the truth. A horse is obviously bad ; if it were 

 another man's property they would have no sort 

 of doubt about it, but being theirs they hope 

 against hope and try to believe, on no reasonable 

 ground, that the creature will make phenomenal 

 improvement. " Get rid of bad horses as soon 

 as possible," is sound advice. 



This, then, was the situation : out of my 

 nine two-year-olds I had four left, a filly that 

 might never come to hand (and in fact never 

 did), an infirm colt that it was really absurd to 

 keep in training, and two others, both rather 

 " moderate " than " useful." Truly my old 

 friend had been wise when he hesitated to 

 confirm my jubilant belief that I must have at 

 least one good one ! His estimate that I might 

 have my fun for ^1,500 to ^2,000 a year I 

 had regarded as absurdly pessimistic ; but how 

 did things look now ? I had expended 6,075 

 guineas in horseflesh, less 403 for the five I had 

 got rid of ; there was the filly, worth something, 

 at any rate 500 or 600 guineas, for the paddocks 

 if she never ran, and the two others that seemed to 

 have cost, if one looked at it that way, a good deal 



