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INSTINCT IN STEEPLECHASE HORSES. Why horses fall without any apparent reason in races through the field, has caused considerable discussion among devotees of that most fascinating branch of thoroughbred racing. Those who make it a study are of the opinion that the horse much resembles the human being when it comes to accidents. Some horses are easily brought down, while others show wonderful instinct in keeping their legs. In connection with the Jrand National, the Derby of the steeplechase sport, there are two notable instances of Inatteetive-mss. the latest case being that of the 190! winner. Luttenr III., and the other Cloister, the first horse to carry top weight .successfully past the post. At the fence before Valentines Hrook Luttenr HI. nearly landed on top of a fallen horse, but while in midair the- French horse latl ltd sideways like a cat and just grazed the fallen animal. Parfrement. the jockey, said afterward that neither himself nor his mount saw the danger till they were half way over the jump, and had not Luttenr III. the instinct to avoid the fallen horse he would surely have been sent sprawling. Cloister won in 1SS3 with 173 pounds in the saddle, and as Dollery, his rider, explained afterward, he let the big chaser take the course and fences his own way. In the early stage of the race Dollery tried to place Cloiater at a couple of the jumps, but the horse would put in an extra stride of his own before taking oil. "So I said to him." said Dollery. "all right, old man. jump then your own way: you know more about it than I do. I dare say." and thence onward Cloister did not put a wrong foot over any of the fences. One of the keenest judges of horseflesh in the world today is the Hon. Charles Coventry, and what he has to say on why horses fall is highly interesting: "Writing with the knowledge gained by practical experience both as a rider and trainer of steeplechasers. I will endeavor to point out the chances of falls and mistakes that occur in a race and why they occur. Bad Falls Result of Fast Pace. "It is known that as a general rule a fall over hurdles is attended with worse results to a jockey than a fall over fences, for the reason it is the pace that kills. and it is the fast pace that makes the bad fall iu most cases. Now. why is it that horses fall? In answer I may say that there are a great many reasons, such as their being insufficiently schooled, being tired, being badly ridden, being interfered with at a fence, etc., and I will try to describe each in turn. "We will take the steeplechaser as he comes to the hands of the trainer; he may have been bought out of a flat race stable or he may have been tired and put aside for chasing. The first thing to do with a chaser after getting him ready for it is to s. -boo! him. and schooling lias a great deal to do with whether a horse falls or not. and it is most essential in every way. Different trainers have different ideas and methods of schooling, and I do not propose to criticise those methods or set up one ag.iinst the other: the horse has to be schooled and the trainer does it his own way. "Some horses take naturally to jumping and there is little difficulty in schooling them. On the other hand, there are certain horses which dislike- Jumping, and theee are the kind that give a trainer most anxiety. He has to gain their confidence, treat them kindly and teach them not to be afraid; it is patience that is required with this stamp of horse. I think one can -ay that the taught hone, if such I may call him. is never so good a chaser as the natural jumper, being a slower and more careful fencer, but I think that as a rule he does not fall as often as the natural Jmnpcr when he has been thoroughly schooled. Infoi tunately nowadays the majority of fences do not require as much jumping as in the old days. and the result is that the horses are not so well schooled as they used to be. A trainer having a nice. lice. l»olel. Batata] jumper does not want to sicken him of jumping by constantly schooling him at home, so scuds him out to compete iu a race, and a long as that horse is meeting small made up fen.es lie will do all right, but over a course like Liverpool the result would be disastrous. A natural jumper does not tire so easily over fences as a taught jumper. Confidence Between Horse and Rider Necessary. "A horse having been schooled and lioing ready for an engagement, we can deal with what happens in a race, but above all we must recollect two tilings — that the confidence must be entire between horse and ride r. or grief is bound to come, and that a horse dislikes falling epiite as much as his jockey does. When a horse is really tired he has not much control over himself and is going a great deal -lower than at any other part of the race and his jockey is probably calling upon him for extra effort, say between the last two fences. He re--spornls gamely to the call maele upon him. but owing to tin- lack of control tl at he has over himself, together with perhaps the fact that by his jockeys efforta he is a little unbalanced, he meets his fence wrong and the invariable toss occurs. "Nov. the- danger in this fall is that he falls slowly and the risk to his jockey is that the horse in iv fall on him. One has seem horses fall like this time and time and lie like dogs on the ground and somitinies with the jockeys leg or body planed under them. A fall from a tired horse, even though yon fall char, very often ends in dlaaster. for it prohal.lv ...ill- at the end of a race or toward the end "f it. and the risk then to the jockey is of the other horses in the rear of him jumping on him. On.- of the- first rules a jockey should bear iu mind in this case is that he should retain Ids recumbent position until lie is sure that the other horses are past aha. I have seen joe keys get up and get knocked down again for their pair.- which is -urc to m an severe injury : and if they arc knocked low a they may cause other horse-s to swerve and so ]..-•• their chance of winning the race. This rule does not of coarse apply to a fall early in the race when the horse is not tired and the jockey retains his bold on the nuns. True Art of Jockeyship. "Tired and lieaton horses must on no account lie driven at their fences, or the result is bound to be a fall: they must be held wedl together and balanced, and this i- the true art of jockey-hip. This takes n. e to the remark 1 made nfeaajt bail riding which often caasea horses to make mistakes. I do not in any way wish to cast a-persioiis on cur present steeplechase lackers, but there are-few who eio not occasionally make mistakes, and my present remarks refer more to the younger jockeys and begtaaers than to the older hands. Young jockeys, and even some of the older riders, seem to think that they shcuill follow their leader exactly and lie in his tracks, thus preventing their own in. unts from seeing their fences properly, and the- result is disaster, either because their mounts take off t... i s... .a or gallop right into the- fence. A rawer, horse will freansently take off when another does, even when lying directly in rear of him, this is not tin- horses lault. and the jockey has no oue but niniself to blame if he gets a nasty spill Then, again, some jockeys can neve-r resist driving their mounts into the fences, and in doing this often get them iu two minds as to when and wlu-re they have to take- oft": the result is a mistake-, and if the horse does not fall the- probability is that the jockey does, because the- odds are tiiat flic- horse hits the fence- hard and the jockey is himself iinbilai.ee el at the time. A duffer can easily bring a horse to grief, but no one can keep him up if he has oiu-e gone. "The whip. too. in inexperienced hands has very often been the eaase of bringing a horse down at the last fence, for unless a horse is hit at the- right moment he- probably changes his h-gs and so inaccurately measures his distaiie-e from the fence and ni.ik-s a mistake in consequence-. Very often a horse is brought down through the interference of anothei horse and jockey jumping on him. or boriug him out. so that he has to jump sideways and do things of that description. A loose horse is constantly responsible for falls, as he v. ill stick to another and so interfere- with him. Horses Overjump Themselves. "Horses freeiuently overjump the-mse-lves. more especially young banes, through inexperience, or, perhaps, When they are- a bit tired, through a keen desire to get to the other side, and fall in conse-queiie-e. In this case the fall for the jockey is slight, always provided that no further contretemps occurs, such as being struck into or jumped on by another horse; but the fall to the horse himself is very often bad. as he is apt to strain hinise-lf in the 1 ocks or across the loins or get a bad overreach. A young horse will freeiuently Scotch at a fence, with the- result that he probably gets too close, i- all abaard, and -o comes to grief. Sometime-s a hsrsc takes off too soon, landing on the top of the fence, or only just getting his forelegs over, and elrags his hind legs after him. so that they refuse to do the service of propelling him forward — the result a nice light fall. Again, he may get tea close to his fence and breast it as he takes off and turn a regular somersault, when he may fall on his jockey and damage him seriously. "Then there- is anotlu-r cause of spills, and that is by reason of what one may call bad fences. J.v thi- I mean fences built on bad ground anil improperly constructed. I know of several on different race courses that to look at seem all right, but there are always a great many falls at them, this I take to show that there must be something wrong with the angle at which they arc- built or on til" take-off or landing side-. Sloppy, bail going in front of a fence caasea horse a to slip, and having M chance t- regain their balance- before taking off blunder through them. P.ad going, like; ridge and furrow in front of a fence, often pats a hone off and he docs not jump so clean and well. Having come from a bit of good going into deep ground before a fence and thing- of this description all tend to put a here off and add to the chances of a fall. I am for a different variety of fences and approach as in the old days of natural courses, bat now we have our en. lose-. 1 courses beautifully kept, tin- going as even as a billiard table and the- feme-all alike. Horse- get u.-ed to this style of going and when they come to small local nie-etings they meet different going and indifferently built fences and they are- liable to fall. "Improperly built fences an- common and are of several varieties. I have seen fences built so that they lean toward a 1 one Instead of being upright or leaning away. Gaard rail- that are often se1 too ne-ar the ditch oit.n caaae accidents; guard rails that are tea high, so that a horse cannot accurately measure his distance; fences built thin at the top. with thick bases, aiiel bound together by ii il- often bring hor-es down, for they think they can chance them — these are all instances of bad fences. "ioo.l temping naturally plays the most important part in a steiplecha-e. A horse that can Liiin a length in each fence is so many lengths to the good faring tl" winning post, and it is for this reason that though on.- horse may be able to beat smother sasilj two miles on the flat, yet over fences their poisiUous are reversed."
