62 VALUE OP 'TIME.' 



nothing disheartens a horse so much as finding himself 

 quite outpaced. He will be very likely to give it up 

 as a hopeless task, and relinquish the contest inglori- 

 ously, unless forced to continue it by aid of whip and 

 spur, which only makes matters still worse. Then, as 

 a rule, the leader of the trial should be on the best 

 horse, and he should ride the distance in favour of his 

 opponent all the way, so that the latter has nothing to 

 do but to sit still and keep with him. 



If you were to allow each lad to ride his own race, 

 one would generally outwit the other to such a degree 

 that nothing correct could be made out of the trial. 

 One would make too much use of his horse, and the 

 other would lay too far away from the other ever to 

 have a chance of getting up again, and therefore the 

 only safe plan is to make them keep together all the 

 way ; at any rate never to allow more than two or 

 three lengths to separate them. There are a great 

 many persons who lay great stress on timing a trial in 

 addition to ensuring its being run truly from end to 

 end, considering that the result without accurate time 

 is utterly inconclusive, and indeed liable to mislead ; 

 but as ' time ' is so dependent on the state of the 

 ground, atmosphere, and many other considerations, I 

 cannot bring myself to accept its decision as conclusive 

 either one way or the other. And, moreover, apart 

 from the above reasons, I have no faith in timing a 

 trial, inasmuch as I have never known either man or 

 horse go over the same course in the same time, either 

 twice in the same day or on two consecutive days. 



