INTRODUCTION 7 



purpose of these articles to advocate that all 

 hunters should be purchased from or trained in the 

 show-ring. Very far from it. The object is to 

 show that by training both the horse and rider, 

 very great improvements can be made in the 

 capacity of both for crossing a natural country. 



In speaking of cross-country work, I do not 

 exclude steeplechasing. The riding of our cross- 

 country jockeys leaves much to be desired, and 

 the reason is not far to seek. Most professional 

 jockeys start in a training stable as lads, riding 

 exercise to start with ; then doing gallops, and finally 

 are put up in their first race. As their weight 

 increases, and they become too heavy for flat 

 racing, they naturally drift into steeplechasing. 

 They seldom have any proper tuition in the arts 

 of horsemanship. Generally speaking, they tumble 

 into the work as best they may, and as long as 

 they "get" the course are usually perfectly 

 satisfied. If they fall off they blame the horse, 

 and no one is in a position to refute their state- 

 ments. A few years ago I remember one horse 

 which was a strong favourite for the National. 

 It did not complete the course, and the official 

 explanation was " fell." Unfortunately, for many 

 of our jockeys, the cinematograph now keeps careful 

 record of the events at every fence in this race, 

 and I purposely went to an exhibition of these 

 films in order to ascertain what had actually 

 occurred. 



The fact w^as that the horse had made an extra- 

 ordinarily fine leap at this fence. He cleared it as 



