Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/211

199 HORSE-RACING.] H O R S E 199 rides other horses, each with some peculiarity perhaps, and, to keep his place in the string, a slug must be kept going, and an impetuous one restrained ; they cannot both be ridden alike, but they must both be ridden as a jockey should ride them. In this way the lad learns the principle of holding a puller, getting pace out of a lazy one, and leaving well alone with a nice free but temperate mover ; he learns to do everything in a horsemanlike manner, and when he has raised himself to the pitch of a &quot; fashionable &quot; jockey, he will frequently be called upon to ride three or four horses a day at race meetings. A jockey must therefore, more than any other civilian rider, have a hand for all sorts of horses, and in the case of two and three year olds a very good hand it must be. The same ability to adapt himself to circumstances must be possessed by the steeple-chase jockey, who should possess fine hands to enable him to handle his horse while going at Ids fences at three-quar f er speed. In most details the nearer a hunting man approaches to a steeple-chase jockey the better; but in the matter of the seat it must be remembered that a jockey 3 exertions last but a few minutes, while none can tell when the hunt ing man may finish his day s work ; the jockey can there fore ride with more absolute grip during his race than the rider to hounds. PART IV. HORSE-RACING. Probably the earliest instance of horse-racing recorded in literature occurs in //. xxiii. 212-650, where the various incidents of the chariot race at the funeral games held in honour of Patroclus are detailed with much vivid ness. How far such competitions, which bear in Homer a semi-religious character, may have arisen out of the not unnatural practice an instance of which occurs earlier in the same connexion (Fl. xxiii. 13, 14) can only be con jectured; it is certain, however, that they very soon came to be of national importance. According to the ancient authorities the four-horse chariot race was introduced into the Olympic games as early as the 23d Olympiad ; to this the race with mounted horses was added in the 33d ; while other variations (such as two-horse chariot races, mule races, loose-horse races, special races for under-aged horses) were admitted at a still later period. Of the training and management of the Olympic race-horse we are left in ignorance ; but it is known that the equestrian candidates were required to enter their names and send their horses to Elis at least thirty days before the cele bration of the games commenced, and that the charioteers and riders, whether owners or proxies, went through a pre scribed course of exercise during the intervening month. At all the other national games of Greece (Pythian, Isthmian, Nemean), as well as at many of the local festivals (the Athenian Olympia and Panathensea), similar contests had a prominent place. Some indication of the extent to which the passion for horse-racing was indulged in at Athens, for example, about the time of Aristophanes may be obtained from the scene with which The Clouds opens ; while it is a significant fact that the Boeotians termed one of the months of their year, corresponding to the Athenian Hecatombseon, Hippodromius (&quot; Horse-race month&quot;; see Plutarch, Cam. 15). Details as to the chariot-races and horse-races of the Greeks, and also of their imitators the Romans, will be found under the headings CIRCUS and GAMES. There is no direct historical evidence to show that the ancient Britons addicted themselves to any form of this amusement ; but there are indications that among some at least of the Germanic tribes, from a very early period, horso-racing was an accompaniment of their religious cultus. There can be no doubt that the Romans en couraged the pursuit in Britain, if they did not introduce it ; traces of race-courses belonging to the period of their occupation have been frequently discovered. The influ ence of the Christian Church was everywhere at first strongly against the practice. The opinion of Augustine and other fathers of the church with regard to attendance at the spectacles, whether of theatre or of circus, is well known ; those who performed in them were rigidly ex cluded from church fellowship, and sometimes even those who merely frequented the;n. Thus the first council of Aries, in its fourth canon, declared that those members of the church who drove chariots at the public games should, so long as they continued in that employment, be denied communion. (Compare the rule in the Ap. Const, ! viii. 32 ; ap. Bingham, Ant. Chr. Church, xvi. 4, 10.) In many cases, however, the weight of ecclesiastical authority proved insufficient to cope with the force of old custom, or with the fascination of a sport the unchristian char acter of which was not very easily demonstrable ; and ultimately in Germany and elsewhere the old local races appear to have been admitted to a recognized place among the ceremonies peculiar to certain Christian festivals. The first distinct indication which contemporary history affords of horse-racing as a sport occurs in the &quot; Descrip tion of the City of London &quot; of William Fitzstephen (c. 1174). He says that in a certain &quot;plane field without one of the gates (quidam planus campus re et nomine Smithfteld, quasi Smoothfield) every Friday, unless it be one of the more solemn festivals, is a noted show of well- bred (nobiliuiri) horses exposed for sale. The earls, barons, and knights who are resident in the city, as well as a multitude of citizens, flock thither either to look on or buy.&quot; After describing the different varieties of horses brought into the market, especially the more valuable chargers (dextrarios preciosos), he says: &quot; When a race is to be run by such horses as these, and perhaps by others which, in like manner, according to their breed are strong for carriage and vigorous for the course, the people rai?e a shout and order the common horses to be withdrawn t &amp;gt; another part of the field. The jockeys, who are boys expert in the management of horses, which they regulate by means .of curb bridles, sometimes by threes and some times by twos, as the match is made, prepare themselves for the contest. Their chief aim is to prevent a com petitor from getting before them. The horses too, after their manner, are eager for the race ; their limbs tremble, and impatient of delay they cannot stand still ; upon the signal being given they stretch out their limbs, hurry on the course, and are borne along with unremitting speed. The riders, inspired with the love of praise and the hop:; of victory, clap spurs to their flying horses, lashing them with whips, and inciting them by their shouts &quot; (seu Stow s Translation). In the reign of Richard I. knights rode at Whitsuntide on steeds and palfreys over a three-mile course for &quot; forty pounds of ready gold,&quot; according to the old romance of Sir Bevys of Hampton. The feats of the tilt-yard, however, seem to have surpassed horse-racing in popular estimation at the period of the crusades. That the sport was to some- extent indulged in by King John is quite possible, as running horses are frequently mentioned in the register of royal expenditure; and we know that Edward III. had a number of running horses, but it is probable they were chiefly used for field sports. An evidence of the growing favour in which horpc-