S44 . MODERN FARRIER. 



Kobson's brown mare Phenomena attracted con* 

 siderable attention by trotting, in July, 1800, be- 

 tween Huntingdon and Cambridge, seventeen miles 

 in fifty -six minutes ; and afterwards, the same dis- 

 tance in less than fifty-three minutes ; when her 

 owner offered to match her to perform nineteen 

 miles and a half within the houi* : but the challenge 

 was not accepted. These were doubtless extraordi- 

 nar}^ performances, but it was not considered, either 

 by the public, or the trotting jockeys themselves, 

 how much was to be allowed in the estimation, on 

 account of the light weight she carried, namely, a 

 feather, being ridden by a lad belonging to the run- 

 ning stables, weighing about five stone. 



The pleasing and intelligent author of the British 

 " Field Sports, in speaking of the treatment of the 

 horse in a race, says that jockeys are frequently un- 

 der the necessity of cutting up and abusing a horse^ 

 utterly in contradiction to their own better judg- 

 ment and inclination ; in many instances to their 

 abhorrence. *The anecdote,' says he, 'has already 

 been pViblished of the miscreant blackguard who 

 gave the following orders to William Barnes:— 

 " Make him win, or cut his bloody entrails out- 

 mark, if you don't give him his belly full of whip, 

 you never ride again for me. I'll find horse if you'll 

 find v/hip and spur !" I saw the little horse, after 

 running three terrible four mile heats, " literally cut 

 up alive," and may I never again witness such a 

 blasted and blasting sight ! The old direction, in 

 the last extremity, to spur a horse "in the fore- 

 bowels," as the tenderest and most vital part, is sa- 

 vage, detestable, and stupidly useless.' 



' But the chief,' continues this writer, ' of the cru- 

 elties in horse-racing, which yet remain to disgust 

 us, are perpetrated in matches upon the road, made, 

 for the most part, by low-bred, unprincipled persons, 

 *and equally ignorant of the properties and powers of 

 the horse and the nature of racing. Nearly or quite 



