165 THE LIFE OF A EACEHORSE. 



generally war^^ccl "by hopes and fears. Some tlionglit me " a 

 Derby horse all over;" others, that "I was not drawn fine 

 enough." One considered me " not half prepared ;" another, 

 *' fit as a fiddle." A few criticised my shoulders, and asserted 

 " they were not sufficiently thrown into my back." Then there 

 were those who considered my quarters " not well let down." 

 One declared that " he'd eat me, shoes and all, if I stayed a 

 yard beyond a mile with such a loin as that.^^ Another held, 

 " I was a picture of a racehorse." To be just, hov/ever, my 

 admirers far out-numbered the opponents to my claim to beauty, 

 speed, arid strength ; and as Ned, the old lemon- visaged jockey, 

 had a leg up, and the remainder of the 8st. 71b., gaily decked 

 in Sir Digby's colours, dropped like a bird upon my back, I 

 both saw and heard the sanguine hopes which my appearance 

 raised. 



Lashing my fianks with my bang tail, as square at the end 

 as a die, I proudly walked in the rear of my stable companion 

 along that distant part of the course from the chair appointed 

 for our parade and canter. Every eye was upon me. I saw 

 them measure me from ear to heel as I passed the distended 

 line of spectators, and my eager spirit for the contest grew 

 momentarily stronger. My jockey's hand and seat, however, 

 acted as a powerful check to certain impulses of a restive 

 tendency, inherited, perhaps, from her I remember first to have 

 seen under the wide-spreading chestnut-tree in the centre of the 

 paddock at the Stud-farm, and the knowledge that he was my 

 master prevented my trying to prove that / was his. Led by 

 my j)ioneer, I took a gentle canter, and then was turned to pre- 

 jDare for the start. 



I am speaking of other days, when false starts were made 

 and permitted, for the express purpose of taking the steel out 

 of irritable horses, to the unquestionable advantage to others of 

 a directly opposite temperament. My hot, impatient ardour 

 was too well known not to be subjected to this imfair ordeal; 

 and time after time, as the signal was given for us to " go," one 

 or more refused to stir, and I was pulled and turned so 

 frequently that I began to feel goaded to madness with the fret- 



