CHAPTER X 



THOROUGH-BRED HORSES 



I HAVE heard it affirmed, though I know not 

 on what authority, that if we are to beh'eve 

 the hunting records of the last hundred years, in 

 all runs so severe and protracted as to admit of 

 only one man getting to the finish, this exceptional 

 person was, in every instance, riding an old horse, 

 a thorougfh-bred horse, and a horse under fifteen- 

 two! 



Perhaps on consideration, this is a less remark- 

 able statement than it appears. That the survivor 

 was an old horse, means that he had many years 

 of corn and condition to pull him through ; that 

 he was a little horse, infers he carried a light 

 weight, but that he was a thorough-bred horse 

 seems to me a reasonable explanation of the whole. 



"The thorough-bred ones never stop," is a 

 common saying among sportsmen, and there are 

 daily instances of some high-born steed who can 

 boast 



" His sire from the desert, his dam from the north," 



