PURCHASING HOESES. 185 



man, without causing some suflfering. Perhaps a 

 mile race causes the least ; it is an effort that lasts 

 two minutes, perhaps less ; and it is more wind that 

 is completely * pumped out,' and want of speed, than 

 anything else that loses such races. I have seen a 

 hundred and twenty yards run by men at a pace that 

 even in this short distance they have been winded. 

 Half a minute after, the pipes are all right and in 

 tune again ; it is the same in short races. In longer 

 races or steeple-chases, the distance is greater, but 

 the horse is trained accordingly, so as, in training 

 phrase, to * get the length into him ; ' and I am quite 

 certain many hunters suffer much more (when not 

 properly prepared) in a fair burst with fox-hounds 

 than do steeple-chase horses in a four-mile course. 

 There is another great disadvantage under which the 

 hunter labours — he is sometimes ridden by an in- 

 judicious, unfeeling, or what I shall term a ' show-off 

 rider ;' in either case he suffers. Now the steeple- 

 chase horse is very rarely, if ever, subject to such 

 treatment. His rider is, in most cases, a good horse- 

 man — a good judge of pace; he feels at once (from 



