HURDLE RACING 



To get a flat-racehorse fit for the business 

 of " timber-topping " is obviously a far easier 

 matter than to prepare him for crossing a 

 country in public. Some animals take to 

 the game so readily, that half-a-dozen visits 

 to the schooling ground will make them well 

 qualified to try their luck in a hurdle race. 

 In fact, on one occasion a friend of mine 

 bought a four-year old out of a selling race 

 — f^ve furlongs — in which he had been third, 

 on the Tuesday, and I rode him in a hurdle 

 race on the Thursday following, and what is 

 more, he gave me a very comfortable ride 

 until the last flight of hurdles but one, where 

 he came down (vulgarly speaking) " a buster." 

 A thoroughbred horse learns very quickly — 

 unless, indeed, he has made up his mind, like 

 several I could name, that jumping doesn't 



