Gentlemen Riders 



were surely a misnomer, who, throwing themselves heart and 

 soul into the game, were prepared to undergo any hard work 

 or privation in order to arrive at the pinnacle of fame, Colonel 

 C. Rivers Bulkely takes a forward place. 



His early childhood was spent at Windsor, where his 

 father resided. In those days the keeper at the Park Street 

 Lodge, leading into the Long Walk — one Snooks — was allowed 

 to let out ponies for hire, and these the v^^orthy man was only 

 too glad to entrust to the willing hands of Master Rivers 

 Bulkely, aged twelve, who would ride three or four of them 

 before breakfast to get them quiet for the mothers' darlings 

 who would disport themselves on their backs later in the 

 day ; and as the ponies in question were of all sorts and 

 sizes, the youthful Dick Christian not only thoroughly enjoyed 

 himself, but gained an amount of experience which proved 

 invaluable later on. 



Arrived at man's estate, Mr. Rivers Bulkely, with a view 

 to perfecting himself in the art of race-riding, placed himself 

 in the hands of Ben Land, who in those days occupied pretty 

 nearly the same position towards the budding horsemen of 

 the period that Mr. Arthur Yates does now, and with him 

 did a lot of riding in schools, and so on. 



The subject of our memoir sported silk for the first time 

 at Chertsey, on March 13, 1863, when, riding Mr. Cooper's 

 Stays, trained by Colonel Harford, he won the Drag Hunt 

 Steeplechase by a neck from Buffalo Girl, trained by himself, 

 belonging to Captain Rowley, 2nd Life Guards, and nine 

 others. 



" I shouted to her owner " (says Colonel Rivers Bulkely), 

 •'a mile from home, that if he did not ride the mare harder 

 I should certainly beat him ; to which he replied, ' Rivers, I 

 am so beat myself I cannot drive her along ! ' " 



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