THE STEEPLECHASER 



and imitation of what is English. Our water 

 jumps are as trifling as the other obstacles, and 

 contain hardly enough liquid to make a splash 

 when a horse lands in them. Again, from the 

 circular nature of our courses, the field is always 

 bunched close to the inside flags, and one can 

 hardly find a footprint twenty feet out from 

 them ; thus making the going not unusually 

 cuppy and rough on the inside of the course, 

 and rendering the higher action more useful, in 

 fact essential, than the " daisy cutting." 



Whatever hunting a horse may have done — and 

 at whatever pace he may have been ridden — you 

 find, when it comes to steeplechasing, that it has 

 not advanced his preparation to any great extent. 

 This is assuming that the runs have been at the 

 usual hunting pace ; for, of course, if the drag is 

 laid so that hounds get through bar-ways, etc., 

 and if they are fast, the hunt will present all the 

 incidents of a 'chase ; and a horse may fly his 

 fences, and charge them at full speed, perforce 

 gaining thereby the finest kind of experience. 

 At the hunting game, however, he learns only to 

 be clever, and too suspicious and careful — the 

 very virtues (in your hunter) which are the most 

 objectionable of faults (in your steeplechaser). 



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