22 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



child being noted for horses that could train on and stand 

 work — but, when sound, they are beyond the hunter-breeder's 

 reach ; and we are daily breeding deeper and deeper into less 

 useful sorts. Hence, as far as producing good useful horses for 

 national purposes, I fear we must say the chase and the turf 

 are divorced. Eacing men now only look to what will yield a 

 quick return; and, as one once wrote to a friend, "race for 

 excitement and profit," and as long as they win, don't *' care 



a d how good or how bad other people's horses are." 



This spirit of lucre in the present day alone animates most of 

 them, and while handicaps and sprint races are in vogue, they 

 are not likely to breed horses that are good for much besides 

 racing. 



The sister sport of steeplechasing was at one time thought 

 to be a great encouragement to the breeding of horses with 

 blood, pace, and size, but I fear it has scarcely answered the 

 expectations formed concerning it, and but very few horses, 

 if any, are produced especially for it. Formerly, high-class 

 hunters were started when steeplechases were run at about 

 twelve stone each from point to point, over a hunting country, but 

 racing cast-offs soon superseded them, and many a cross-country 

 crack, winner of big stakes, has been scarcely fit to carry the 

 boots of an average hunting man through a chase of any length. 

 In fact, hunting is one business, steeplechasing another, and 

 those horses that have been good at both are the exception 

 rather than the rule. The Colonel was, I believe, quite an old 

 man's horse with hounds, and perfect in manners. The Demon, 

 by Teddington, would also carry Jem Goater over a very blind, 

 cramped country, in the most deliberate and perfect form, and 

 earn his keep by winning half a dozen of steeplechases in the 

 spring. Moreover, Count Andre rode him as charger all through 

 the war with France (no man had a better), and finished up by 

 winning another steeplechase with him when it was over. Mr. 

 Arthur Yates's clever little horse. Bristles, was also good in either 

 place y but these are the exceptions that go to prove the rule, 



