Gentlemen Riders 



I did not like leaving her, since, two years previously, I 

 had bought from the same stud a very nice chestnut mare, 

 Vulture, that could have won many steeplechases but for her 

 slow and slovenly style of jumping, in consequence of which 

 she lost by a short neck the United Hunt Steeplechase at the 

 Grand Annual Meeting at Cheltenham (whereat the redoubt- 

 able Emblem won the principal race), through slovenly jumping 

 at the last fence when quite ten lengths to the good. 



When what I ought to describe as " the brood mare " 

 reached my stables, I put a bit on her, and, attaching a long 

 plough-rein to this, I made her gallop as fast and as long as 

 she could in a ring, with the result that she made a slight 

 noise. 



This defect decided me to refrain from expending any 

 trouble in breaking or mouthing her ; and as soon as she was 

 quiet to ride and in sufficiently good condition, I set her the 

 task of leading my horses. 



I soon discovered that her looks did not belie her, for she 

 was fast and could stay, while the defect in her wind had 

 almost disappeared. I named her Ann Page. She proved a 

 natural jumper, and was very bold, but her untutored mouth 

 gave me much trouble. 



However, I ran her three times, winning the Boreatton 

 Park Stakes at Baschurch, and an Open Steeplechase over the 

 Birmingham course at a race meeting of the cavalry regiments 

 stationed in the Midlands at that time. She was unplaced in 

 the Grand National Hunt race. But this she ought to have 

 won, for she was quite twenty lengths in front two fences from 

 home, when, owing to a sharp turn and to her unyielding 

 mouth, I could never get her head straight, and she went 

 sideways through the fence and fell. Soon after this I sold 

 her — to go abroad. 



'58 



