158 HINTS TO HOESEMEIf; OB, 



language, beat two or three times during the last half 

 mile of the run home ; but a pull for a few strides at 

 the critical moment, saves him, and sets him going 

 again ; and after all, he, perhaps, wins his race. It 

 is thus, in a mitigated degree, in a steeple -chase. I 

 have seen runners, when only running half a mile, 

 run in apparently, to the bystanders, perfectly fresh, 

 faint the moment thej^ stopped : they would probably 

 have dropped from exhaustion had the race been ten 

 yards further ; they had just wind and strength to 

 finish with, and this leaves their energies completely 

 prostrated. It is much the same as regards horses : 

 in racing, the extreme pace reduces them to a state 

 bordering on what I have mentioned in men, and if 

 not eased before it" comes to this, though they would 

 not, like the man, faint, they would fall off till they 

 only staggered home in a canter, if they did not stop 

 before they reached it. The man feels whether by 

 extreme exertion his strength will carry him home, 

 and if a game one, he taxes his powers to carry him 

 through : if he feels exertion is useless, he wisely 

 gives in. The jockey, from practice, feels his horse's 



