Gentlemen Riders 



Captain Yardley now proceeded to South Africa to take 

 part in the Boer War, where he was so severely wounded that 

 for some years he was quite incapacitated, and, as a result, can 

 only now hunt and play a little polo. 



** Nerve being right, however," says this plucky sportsman, 

 " I look forward, if age does not prevent, to getting fit enough 

 to ride between the flags again, one of these days." 



In the course of his riding career, Colonel Yardley has 

 broken an arm, shoulder, and collar-bone ; his leg in five places, 

 ribs, etc., but all healed well and give no ill results. These 

 accidents were all caused by horses falling. 



Considering how much his time was taken up with soldiering, 

 coupled with the fact that he was never able to afford expen- 

 sive horses — indeed he will tell you that he was never once on 

 the back of one worth a thousand — such a record as his is 

 little short of marvellous. To these causes he attributes his 

 failure to win the Grand Military Gold Cup ; the only time he 

 had really booked it in advance being when asked to ride 

 Parma Violet, for whom the race would have been a gift, but 

 for the mare breaking down at Hurst Park just previously. 



Though best known to the majority as a steeplechase 

 rider, there is not a sport one can name which the subject of 

 this chapter has not an intimate acquaintance with. Devoted 

 to hunting, there is hardly a pack in the United Kingdom 

 with which he is not known. A keen fisherman, he has 

 caught mahseer in Assam, salmon in Norway and Newfound- 

 land, and is equally proficient at dry-fly and grayling fishing at 

 home. As a shot it would be difiicult to find his superior ; 

 whilst the fine collection of heads of all sorts which adorn his 

 walls in Gloucestershire, speaks volumes for his prowess among 

 big game. Even as we write, he is preparing for a visit to 

 East Africa on a shooting expedition. 



340 



