2 84 S TEEPLE- Chasing 



them joined in the game, the pioneers having been 

 successful ; steeple-chase courses of the artificial pattern 

 were made up ; the clerks of these sought entries ; 

 steeples had by this time nothing to do with steeple - 

 chasing ; courses were constructed to favour the race- 

 horses at the expense of the hunters, because the former 

 were ousting the latter from the field. 



Thus steeple-chasing, that is steeple-chasing proper, 

 declined. Courses sprang up, or, it should rather be 

 said, were made up, in all directions, the clerks of these 

 courses lived on their success, and laid themselves out 

 to secure as many entries as possible ; it is natural, 

 however regrettable, that they should have made their 

 courses more and more easy, half-schooled chasers being 

 more plentiful than the finished article ; for it takes a long 

 time thoroughly to teach a steeple-chaser his business. 

 Jumping fences in the hunting-field is one thing, jumping 

 them at racing pace is quite another. Most men who 

 have had any experience of country life know how the 

 hunter jumps. As he sees the fence before him, he 

 usually shortens his stride, goes at it in a more collected 

 form, pauses more or less as he takes off, and, having 

 made his eftbrt, slightly. pauses again on landing. These 

 pauses would just lose a man the race over a country, 

 and the great thing is to teach chasers to collect them- 

 selves when at full speed, to get away from their fences, 

 to go at them with the slightest possible diminution of 

 pace, and to be off on the other side without dwelling. 

 To do this so as to win races is a matter which 

 requires much time and much practice. What are 

 called ' natural jumpers ' are all well enough ; but nature 

 does not take steeple-chasing into consideration when 

 she helps her equine children on the way they should go. 



