Earliest Riding Days 



all-round horsewoman I have ever seen — another 

 proof, if one were wanted, of my thesis already 

 enunciated, that riding runs in families. One 

 must be bred in the right way, apparently, to 

 achieve fame (and fat fees) in the pigskin. The 

 falls, of course, don't count. 



I began to ride " schooling," as the phrase 

 goes, immediately 1 left school. First over 

 hurdles, next over fences, on all sorts of young 

 thoroughbred horses, taking things as they came, 

 up and down, on and off — it was an exhilarating 

 exercise. At the age of fourteen I sustained one 

 of the worst falls of my career, which has been 

 rich in incidents of that kind. A horse called 

 "Sandhill" came to grief with me in a gallop 

 over the Steeplechase Course at home, breaking 

 several of my ribs and rendering me insensible 

 for four hours. On coming to, my ideas were 

 considerably mixed, my head seemed in a whirl ; 

 but I thought to myself: "Well, if this is an 

 essential part of a jockey's education, the sooner 

 mine is completed the better." 



Since that time, whilst following my profes- 

 sion in many countries, I have taken a large 

 number of diversified "tosses," some of which 

 were pernicious, and the others did me little or 

 no good. They will form the text of a future 



19 



