Gentlemen Riders 



a hunter, he was worth more than double this amount, I was 

 glad to see the last of him. 



This was, happily, the last horse of whose pedigree there 

 was any doubt — with one very remarkable exception — that 

 I ever gave myself the trouble and disappointment of training, 

 for I had discovered two serious drawbacks in training half- 

 bred horses — one being that they cannot stand much galloping ; 

 and the other, and the more serious, that the faster thorough- 

 bred ones race at their fences the better they jump ; while the 

 very reverse is the case with half-bred ones. Indeed, it has 

 long been my conviction that the majority of half-bred horses 

 would run far better out of the hunting field than the training 

 stable. 



It would have been more correct to have stated, in my 

 allusion to one " remarkable exception " in the case of horses 

 of doubtful pedigree, that it had reference to an animal of 

 " unknown pedigree," whose history was both strange and 

 interesting. There could, indeed, be no doubt in the mind of 

 any experienced judge of thoroughbred horses, that this 

 animal's claim to "blue blood "was unquestionable; though, 

 in consequence of her purchase as a two-year-old at a sale of a 

 draft of thoroughbred horses, and being grazed for three 

 years — with the view of being trained as a hack — her pedigree 

 was lost or mislaid, and her identity was never established. 



On being taken up it was discovered that her temper was 

 so impetuous that she would brook no control ; and during the 

 following year, after many fruitless endeavours to dispose of 

 her, she was taken to Horncastle Fair, where the man in 

 charge was foolish enough to allow an Irish nagsman to 

 " throw his leg over her ! " 



No sooner was this done, than she went off at score, 

 knocked over several people, and went headlong into the 



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