Earliest Riding Days 



fall abroad, won the " Sefton " for the King 

 on " Magic." 



The amount of riding we used to do at home 

 in those early days was little short of amazing. 

 For example, on a "schooling" morning we 

 often took fifteen or twenty horses to Walton, 

 where our private steeplechase and hurdle 

 courses were (and are) laid out. My brother 

 and I rode the lot between us, two going at a 

 time, and afterwards we drove to Sandown or 

 Kempton so as to take part in three or four more 

 races. We had done a good day's work, even 

 if there were not a few incidental " purlers," by 

 the time we had finished. It was a sovereign 

 cure for dyspepsia. Yet how true is the state- 

 ment, made without recklessness or arriere 

 pensee, that cross-country jockeys for a modest 

 remuneration accept risks as an inevitable feature 

 of their programme which an ordinary citizen 

 would not or could not accept for all the money 

 in the world. He is not built that way, and has 

 no taste for reconstruction. 



One of my most lonely rides was over the big 

 Aintree country some years ago. There were 

 two runners for a steeplechase. I steered one. 

 and the other " came it," as the savants say, at 

 the first fence. I was left to do the 4 miles in 



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