The Hunting Year 



Point to Point is race riding, as you will speedily 

 find, if ever you take part in one. 



There are some people who write and talk 

 as if it were not, but Point to Point racing is 

 steeplechasing with slow horses instead of with 

 fast ones, and on a different kind of course; 

 and so it happens that the gentleman in pink 

 who is just mounting a somewhat indifferent 

 chestnut will be the most dangerous opponent 

 to the little bay we have just been looking at, 

 for he is a steeplechase jockey of high repute, 

 an amateur of course, but as good as most pro- 

 fessionals and better than the average. He 

 would win on any of the horses our young 

 friends are going to ride, though he would 

 have his work cut out to beat them in the 

 hunting field, which is a very different game 

 altogether. 



The course has been arranged so that most 



of it can be seen from the winning field, and 



though this is a plan which the purists don't 



approve of, it is the wise one. There is sure to 



be the grumbler at your meeting, and he will 



hold forth to the effect that the race rider has 



170 



