PATRICK CAFFREY 11 



The experience which I gained from being taught 

 how to fall when a child has been of the very greatest 

 service to me, and I have met many people who were 

 ' past masters ' in the art of falling. Amongst these 

 latter, a man I had as trainer and stud-Q:room often 

 astonished us by the extraordinary facility he possessed 

 of falling on his feet, and being able to clear himself 

 from his horse even in the very worst falls. He was 

 universally acknowledged to be one of the finest horse- 

 men of his day. I regret to say he met his death owing 

 to a bad kick from a three-year-old, which fell back in 

 taking an up-bank which it had no idea of how to 

 negotiate properly, and so he came to an imtimely end 

 after a career of twenty-five years. During the long 

 time he was in my service previously to this he had 

 never sustained any injury, and had the most marked, 

 even brilliant, success during that period with the 

 hunters and steeple-chasers entrusted to him. Patrick 

 Caffrey (for such was his name) was well known with 

 the Ward, Meath, Louth, and Kildare hounds, and for 

 many years was my most faithful servant, and one of 

 the very best trainers of a horse I have ever known. 

 No matter what horse he might be riding, whether 

 a young one or not, he was always with hounds, 

 whether whipping-in to my harriers, or riding to either 

 of the above-named packs. His natural resource, and 

 ready eye for the practicable part of a fence, gave him 

 the advantage over the rest of us in a 'quick thing,' 

 and, in my estimation certainly, he was the finest horse- 

 ^ man of his day. 



To show how little he depended on his stirrup- 

 leathers, I have often seen him, his horse lying on 

 its back, coolly standing beside him, without having 



