QUALIFICATION 197 



genuine sport among local horses and their riders, 

 the thing became a farce, for the quasi-hunter would 

 almost inevitably be in the hands of a competent 

 "sharp." If the animal had been schooled and 

 could jump, hunters' steeplechases were equally de- 

 stroyed, and still more so hunters' hurdle races — ab- 

 surdities in themselves, for it is the business of a 

 hunter to jump a country, not to fly hurdles — where 

 speed was a first essential. 



The earliest endeavour to amend this state of things 

 was the introduction of a rule stating that no horse, 

 though it had a hunting certificate, should be qualified 

 to run for hunters' races if during the twelve months 

 prior to the day of starting it had run for a handicap, 

 whether over a country or not, at home or abroad. 

 In the early eighties this was supplemented by a 

 further requisition that the hunter must not have run 

 under the recognised Rules of Racing since the age 

 of two, and must have jumped all the fences at a 

 meeting under Grand National Hunt Rules to the 

 satisfaction of a couple of the stewards. At present 

 (1898), horses, to be qualified to run in the few 

 National Hunt Flat Races still contested, must have 

 been placed by the judge first, second, or third in a 

 steeplechase in Great Britain or Ireland ; and the 

 Rule unnecessarily continues to declare that they must 

 have jumped all the fences and completed the whole 

 distance of the course. They must be ridden in these 

 Flat Races also by qualified riders — that is to say. 



