VALUE OF THE STEEPLECHASER. 87 



The answer is this, 



1. Such horses cost a large sum of money to breed. 



2. They are so highly appreciated by liberal pur- 

 chasers from all countries as well as our own, that the 

 demand is far greater than the supply. 



3. That they can be obtained, but not without con- 

 siderable cost ; for, like every other article deemed by 

 the [public to be really good, be the commodity land, 

 timber, carriages, or whatsoever else, the money value 

 will be in exact ratio to its worth. Nevertheless, how 

 frequently do we hear men vowing that there are no 

 horses of blood and power left in the country, merely 

 because they cannot find them at their own precon- 

 ceived ideas of cost, or at the same price at which they 

 themselves or their forefathers in times gone by used 

 to obtain them, forgetting that in those days they only 

 had a home market to contend with, for the simple 

 reason that the merits of our thoroughbred stock were 

 neither appreciated nor known by foreigners generally, 

 owing to the meagre means of international intercourse 

 that then existed, but which has since been entirely 

 removed. It is now an easier task to send a horse 

 from York to Vienna than it was in former days to send 

 one from York to London. 



Therefore it is no matter of surprise that we find 

 such a staff of foreigners at all our principal fairs, more 

 hungry buyers than dealers of our own country. 



Of steeplechasers both the French and Germans are 

 especially fond, and are always ready to give a high 

 price for a highly tried horse capable of carrying a high 



