Mr. Digby Collins 



dare to sell her. So it was arranged that he was to come to 

 my hotel for the money on the following morning. I must say 

 that I had grave doubts whether he would fulfil his appoint- 

 ment ; but he was as good as his word, and advised me to be 

 off with the mare as soon as possible, lest his mistress should 

 change her mind. 



I used the mare for hacking to and from the Bishops Castle 

 Downs — about six miles from my stables — and about two 

 months after she began this work, I tried her to lead one of 

 my horses a three-quarter speed gallop over a mile and a 

 quarter. 



This trial left no doubt in my mind that she had speed 

 enough for hunt races ; so, without loss of time, I schooled her 

 over hurdles and fences, to both of which she took kindly. 



Knowing nothing of her pedigree, I named her Florida, 

 and ran her as "pedigree unknown " in a flat race over a mile 

 and a half at Montgomery, and in a hurdle race over the same 

 distance at Llanymynech. She won these two races very 

 easily, so I ran her in the Grand National Hunt Steeplechase, 

 over the old course at Rugby, and I never had a smoother 

 ride ; but the ridges and furrows did not suit her action, and 

 she tired in the last half mile, and was not placed. 



Mr. Stanley, the well-known Vet. of Leamington, on behalf 

 of a client, offered me two hundred and twenty pounds, and 

 I accepted it. 



The other animal I bought at a sale of thoroughbred stock 

 belonging to Mr. Smith, of Ladbrook, near Shrewsbury, and 

 I gave either nine pounds or nineteen for her — I cannot 

 remember which. This mare was nine years old, had bred 

 four foals, and had never been broken. She was wretchedly 

 poor, and was suffering from an attack of mange ; but she was 

 made as a steeplechaser ought to be. 



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