Steeple-Chasixg 287 



over the fence. It is firmly made up, as he knows, and 

 he jumps it with nothing to spare, but safely enough. 

 How he picks up his legs is not easy to say, for the 

 twigs seem to brush his girths as he crosses. The pace 

 is altogether too fast for the hunter. She is flurried, 

 and gets right under the guard rail in front of tlie 

 fence, she knocks it with all four feet, so that at this 

 jump, when by an effort she is safely over, she pauses 

 more than at the former. The youngster is across 

 before her. He gives his head one shake, rushes at it, 

 is well over and off again on the other side so quickly 

 that five or six strides beyond he is level with the 

 brown, who rose a length in front of him. The old one 

 is, perhaps, a trifle slow with age, though he still wins 

 chases, and what he lacks in speed is to a great extent 

 compensated for by the cleverness with which he fences. 

 As for the hunter, it is already evident that only in the 

 most moderate company can she hope to hold her own. 



The amateur trainer is very apt to make blunders 

 about his horse's ability, because he does not know what 

 will happen to him when it comes to racing, as in the 

 case of the grey mare just introduced. At home she 

 has been reckoned something out of the common. As it 

 seems to her owner, who has nothing by the side of 

 which to test her merits, she gallops very fast indeed. 

 She never dreams of refusing or turning her head when 

 sent at a jump, and his early ambition to win a race 

 with her at a local hunt meeting has grown till he has 

 come to regard her as well able to hold her own in a 

 chase at some popular meeting. For this reason he has 

 induced the trainer of our young one to let him have a turn 

 against something with a reputation ; but as he watches, 

 with all his partiality for the old mare he cannot but 



