Captain the Hon. Reginald Ward 



with the Pytchley, Belvoir, and Mr. Fernie's. He shines, too, 

 as a game and pigeon shot. 



In 1894 Mr. Thursby married Miss Hardcastle, sister 

 to Mrs. Fernie, herself a noted horsewoman over Leicestershire. 



Like her husband, Mrs. Thursby is devoted to horses, 

 and with Heartache, bred by herself, she won a good many 

 races. 



CAPTAIN THE HON. REGINALD WARD 



One of the best of our amateur horsemen, either in the Army or 

 out of it, at the period when he was riding, was the popular 

 young officer named above, whose premature death cast a 

 gloom, not only over those amongst whom he lived, but the 

 entire sporting world, many of whom, perhaps, only knew him 

 by repute, or from seeing him on the race-course. 



With Arthur Yates, to whose schooling so many of our best 

 young horsemen of late years, especially amongst the military, 

 are indebted for any success they may have attained in the 

 saddle, to train for him and act as guide, philosopher, and 

 friend, it was not long, you may depend, before " Reggie " 

 Ward, who, from the very beginning, "shaped well," as the 

 saying is, made his mark as a steeplechase rider, and as early 

 as 1896 we find him, in a field of nineteen runners, finishing 

 second, on his own horse Benedictus (aged, 12 st. 10 lbs.), to 

 Mr. H. M. Ripley, on Mr. C. P. Shrubb's Ludgershall (5 yrs., 

 12 St. I lb.), in the National Hunt Steeplechase at Hurst Park, 

 being only beaten by three parts of a length after a great race 

 from the last fence. 



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