TRAINERS AND JOCKEYS 265 



Like ourselves, the Americans sustained a sudden awaken- 

 ing in the matter of riding, only it did not come about in 

 the public manner that has been the case in England. The 

 lesson was learned in private, and the instructors were some 

 Indians, who won trials on practically whichever horses they 

 rode. It did not matter how bad they had been proved to 

 be previously, the Indians won on them against white jockeys 

 riding proven better horses. The American mind, being 

 unprejudiced by tradition, quickly grasped the situation, and 

 hence we have the evolution of Sloan and his compeers. 

 Given the faculty to perceive and the sense to adopt, and 

 the thing looks delightfully simple. I take it that what 

 was learnt from the Indian was the peculiar attitude, or seat, 

 which causes the jockey to become almost part and parcel 

 of the horse as he lies along his neck with his hands close 

 to the animal's ears. In this position he offers the least 

 resistance to atmospheric pressure, which as a force to be 

 circumvented scarcely entered into the calculations of the 

 old-time trainer and jockey. That a little atmospheric 

 pressure more or less would make any difference to so 

 powerful and heavy an animal as a horse does not seem 

 feasible, but the thing is easily demonstrable when we con- 

 sider that horses travel at thirty-five miles an hour, more 

 or less. At this pace the resistance may be roughly set 

 down at 5 lbs. per square foot, and if a jockey gets rid of this 

 amount of resistance by screening himself behind his horse's 

 neck he is practically lightening his burden by 5 lbs. And 

 what cannot 5 lbs. do on the saddle, other things being equal ? 

 The riding of the bicycle should have imparted much 

 practical instruction in this direction, and it would be difficult 

 to apportion, by means of weight, the difference in resistance 

 met by a cyclist sitting upright and one stooping over the 

 handles. Put 5 lbs. too much on a horse's saddle and men 

 will bet thousands against him. They have had to learn 

 that pounds weight and pounds atmospheric resistance are 

 convertible. It is not everyone who is physically fitted to 

 take full advantage of the crouching attitude, and the most 

 perfect — one might say quite perfect — exponent of it we 

 have hitherto seen is J. Sloan. 



