REMINISCENCES OF BERT DRAGE 



I was also very fortunate in my head man — Sam 

 Adams. I could not possibly have had anyone 

 better. It was funny how I came across him. He 

 was working for a butcher in Northampton who had 

 a pretty good horse he wanted to sell. He sent 

 Sam out on him for me to try with hounds. I 

 told Sam not to jump my horse, but just quietly 

 to ride him behind and keep him fresh for me to 

 ride when I had tried his horse. But I found Sam 

 was not doing as I told him, but was joining in the 

 hunt, so I pulled back and lectured him, but all I 

 could get out of him was : " All right, sir." But 

 it had no effect. I bought the horse and I took 

 on Sam. 



About that time (1885) we had six or seven 

 horses stabled in rough boxes at the field barn. 

 Sam did them all himself and lived in the barn. 

 I put a cooking stove in and made it as comfortable 

 as I could for him. I soon found out that Sam's 

 horses were better done than were our 20 best 

 horses at home and, against my brother's advice, 

 I had Sam away from the barn and put him in 

 charge of all our horses in the stables. I realised 

 it was a bit risky putting this young man as head of 

 all the others, but they soon realised that I meant 

 it to be so, and it was a very great success. 



Our horse dealing business grew to be one of 

 the biggest hunter and polo businesses. When 



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