220 THE HORSE IN HISTORY 



took place in James's reign was the one arranged 

 at Newmarket between Lord Haddington and 

 Lord Sheffield. 



Run at Huntingdon towards the end of the year 

 1607, the race was extremely exciting from start 

 to finish. Both men appear to have been good 

 riders, and the stake run for is said to have 

 amounted to a considerable sum. 



Yet the various accounts of the match give 

 versions which differ widely as to what hap- 

 pened, and while one writer declares that Lord 

 Haddington won with difficulty, another con- 

 tradicts him by maintaining that the stake was 

 awarded to Lord Sheffield. 



With regard to the pictures that are said to 

 have been drawn from life in those days, if they 

 are true to life it becomes obvious that some 

 three centuries ago it was not customary for 

 race riders, or "tryers," to stand in their stirrups 

 while riding races, as they do to-day and most 

 certainly did in the last century and the century 

 before it. This is strange, for some of the 

 earliest of our writers who touch incidentally 

 upon the subject of race riding are rather emphatic 

 in declaring that the jockey should get rid of all 

 " dead " weight, and of course it is chiefly by 

 standing in the stirrups that "dead" weight can 

 be neutralised. 



James I. would seem to have paid more atten- 

 tion to the theory of training horses he intended 



