orses in steeple-chasing and
hurdle-racing; they die of suffocation. The reason is a sufficient one
for the discontinuance of such racing and chasing.

A mounted horse will overtake a dismounted horse, his superior in speed.
It is the common error to suppose that this results from the mechanical
assistance of the rider. The real reason is, that the dismounted horse
goes off, like an inexperienced jockey, at his utmost speed. I do not
believe that a horse can do this for more than a hundred yards without
being distressed for wind (and I speak from experience with Mr. Drummond
Hay's barbs at Tangier, which were trained to the feat). The rider
starts at a pace which he knows his horse can keep, and the dismounted
horse, though he gains on him at first, _comes back to him_ as the
jockeys say: for a horse which has been distressed for wind in the first
hundred yards, will not arrive at the end of a mile nearly so soon as
if he had gone the whole at the best pace he could stay at. Here the
assistance from the rider is mental not mechanical.

When mounted it never happens to any horse but an arab or a barb to go
his best _muscular_ pace. What we call best pace is the best pace a
horse can stay at for _wind_. If a common hack were started fresh for
the last hundred yards against the best horses in England when finishing
their race, he would have it hollow.

[Sidenote: The rider should not lift his horse at a fence.]

Woe to the sportsman who ambitiously attempts to lift his horse
mechanically over a fence on the principle discussed above; he is much
more likely to throw him into it. He had better content himself with
sitting quietly on his horse, holding him only just enough to keep his
head straight and to regulate his pace, and trust the rest to his
horse's honour. The horse should feel sufficiently commanded to know
that he _must_ go, and sufficiently at liberty to know that he _may_ use
all his capabilities. The body should not previously be thrown back, but
as the horse springs, the lower part of the rider being firmly fixed in
the saddle, and the upper part perfectly pliable, the body will fall
back of itself; and with strong jumping horses, or at down leaps, the
shoulders of fine riders will constantly meet their horse's croupes.

A bad horseman throws his horse down, which a good one does not. That
is, because the bad horseman hurries his horse over hard or rough
ground, or down hill, or over loose stones--allows hi