Steeplechase Riding 217 



silk jacket, and swear we have taken a new 

 le-^se of racing life? These things be hidden 

 mysteries that I think few, if any, have 

 really found the solution of. When analysed, 

 the feelings to which we allude as occasionally 

 the bane of the horseman, resemble those of 

 a swimmer. It is not a sense of danger in 

 either case ; it is not a want of courage 

 obviously, for the proposed ordeal is a 

 voluntary one. There is distinct conscious- 

 ness that a shock has to he undergone, that 

 it ivill he undergone, and that afterwards all 

 will be well. But meantime the swimmer 

 stands shivering on the brink, and the horse- 

 man trembles. " The spirit indeed is willing, 

 but the flesh is weak." The moral will 

 triumph over the physical, real courage over 

 nervousness ! The plunge once taken, the 

 start once made, brings one a sense of exalta- 

 tion, that I don't think anything else in the 

 world can produce. One moment of time 

 seems amply sufiicient for you to take in the 

 whole situation. You see how your own 

 horse is going ; you tell, as though by in- 



