ECLIPSE IN A RIDING-SCHOOL. 113 



lurching horses ridden this colt from the first, he 

 might have been made a race-horse of. We certainly 

 cannot give a race-horse speed if he has it not in him ; 

 but if the want of it in any way proceeds from bad 

 going, what speed he has may be wonderfully improved 

 by teaching him to go better. It would be no use 

 training a man with his legs tied : let us first untie 

 these legs, if we can ; if not, do let us give him as 

 much liberty as the string will allow, or let him icalk 

 all his life. 



I remember once hearing an old gentleman say 

 that he heard Sir Sidney Meadows, the great manege 

 rider, assert, that if Eclipse had been put a few weeks 

 under him he would have made him go faster than he 

 did. Being quite a boy at the time, and riding races 

 occasionally, I laughed very heartily at the idea of 

 putting a race-horse in a 7nanege rider's hands for 

 improvement, and of course such a horse as Eclipse 

 of all others. Many people and all trainers would 

 now laugh as much at the idea as I did then ; but 

 though I have not ridden races lately, I have since 

 that time thought more, and begin to think Sir 

 Sidney's idea might not be so very ridiculous as it 

 may at first appear. If an ignorant man had made 

 such an assertion, it would not have been worth a 

 thought ; but a man, who, like Sir Sidney, had made 

 horses an absolute study ^ was not likely to propose any- 

 thing respecting them without good grounds for his 

 opinion. He probably could not train or ride a race- 

 horse, but he knew, upon physical principles, what 

 was likely to improve the propelling and progressive 

 powers of the horse much better than any trainer in ex- 

 istence, who probably knows nothing at all about the 

 matter. They know some go, and some do not : if 



VOL. II. I 



