5 TEEPLE- ChA sing 2^7 



chasers have their action, are well in themselves, and 

 have done enough work, they are content. But probably 

 Cropper likes riding a trial. He takes some friends down 

 to see it, to whom he explains why he came off at the 

 open ditch — no fault of his, of course — if any little mishap 

 of that sort should occur, and who cheerily ' have their 

 pony on ' out of affection for old Cropper, when he comes 

 out gaily in his colours on the day of the race. The 

 trainer has been told that he is ' on a hundred to nothing ' 

 (need it be explained for the benefit of any reader that 

 this means he is to have 100/. in the event of victory at 

 no risk to himself should there be a misfortune '?) ; and 

 as he sees his lordship riding at the first fence he looks 

 grave, as if inwardly speculating on the present market 

 value of the wager. 



All owners are not like this, it need hardly be said. 

 There are men who know as much about horses as their 

 trainers, whose advice a trainer would seek, not out of 

 compliment, but for its real value. Sometimes, too, a 

 keen and sensible young owner learns to think for him- 

 self, and by his shrewd suggestions makes his trainer 

 think too, that the old rule of thumb methods may 

 need revision. On occasions, again, the owner of the 

 chaser is really a horseman, who can well hold his own 

 against professional rivals ; but the men described are 

 typical, and, as a rule, the owner of the chaser, supposing 

 that his years do not much exceed forty or his weight 

 eleven stone, has more direct connection with and know- 

 ledge of his property than the owner of the five-year- 

 old who has been let into the Cambridgeshire at 6 st. 7 lb. 



The nature of chasing has altered since our fore- 

 fathers, mounted on their favourite hunters, had spins 

 against each other in the course of a run, and were prone 



