My Racing Adventures 



not on the racecourse. We do not ask children 

 to recite on the stage before they have learned 

 how to articulate with some degree of success. 

 If jockeys' lives were not so cheap, there would 

 not be quite so much variegated sport as at 

 present in Merry England. 



The "schooling" of steeplechasers is a more 

 important and difficult work than that just 

 sketched. We must begin with plain fences 

 not too large ; the first lessons should be as 

 simple and easy as possible, so long as they are 

 done satisfactorily. A wise plan is to have a 

 low white rail in front of every fence, because 

 horses thus grow accustomed to it, and scarcely 

 realise the difference between such obstacles and 

 the more formidable ditch. They learn to skip 

 over the one as cleverly as the other. Nothing 

 comes amiss to them, as a rule, when they have 

 acquired patent-safety tactics. 



I certainly think also that the rail before every 

 ditch on a racecourse ought to be painted white, 

 since that calls a horse's attention to it ; he sees 

 in time what he has to do — " get on with your 

 business " is a familiar term for it — and a spill 

 may be avoided. I always had these low white 

 rails, as advised, when "schooling" my own 

 jumpers at Walton ; the immunity from accident 



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