Captain Little 



original price (twenty guineas), only to sell him for sixty a few 

 days later to Captain Cotton (afterwards Lord Combermere) 

 of the Blues. During the greater part of the year 1842, The 

 Chandler was lame from a severe cut received in the hunting 

 field, but becoming sound again, was for three years Captain 

 Peel's favourite hunter. It was not until 1846, when the horse 

 was ten years old, that Captain Peel thought of trying what 

 the horse could do in a steeplechase, and in that year his owner 

 sent him to Bradley at Hednesford to be trained, and ridden 

 by his owner for the first time at Birmingham, ran second to 

 Richard the First for a sweepstakes, winner to be sold for 

 300 sovereigns, which event had he not been carried so far out 

 of the course by another animal, he would almost certainly 

 have won. His next appearance was at Warwick for the 

 Hunt Cup. Captain Little had not then come upon the scene, 

 and as a near relation of Captain Peel's had just died, 

 Chandler was ridden by Captain Broadley, and whether it 

 was that the rider was weak, or that strange hands upset the 

 horse, the fact remains that he turned round at too many of the 

 fences, yet made short work of his eight opponents, for he won 

 in a canter by twenty lengths. 



It was during this identical race, that Chandler made the 

 famous jump which gave rise to so much discussion. Some 

 said it was thirty-nine feet, others thirty-seven ; the last 

 named distance being probably the correct measurement. 

 Ridden by Captain Peel, the Chandler won at Windsor, and 

 then his owner sold half of him to Captain Little, who was 

 nearly always on his back on subsequent occasions. 



In 1850, Captain Little won a sweepstakes at the Grand 

 Military meeting on Gipsy Queen, and on the same mare 

 he won the Hunt Cup at Warwick, easily beating Mr. Carey's 

 gelding by Laurel, the mount of Mr. Morris of the 17th 



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