Gay Lawless

by Helen Mathers; Phil Reeves

Chris's enjoyment reached perhaps its culminating point in the round-the-course jumping competition, that took the place of the high jump—a real good, stiff and varied steeplechase. He noted keenly the solidity of the obstacles—post and rails, park-palings, high park gates, and push-over gate, a Suffolk "squeeze," with a barrier of high hedges and thorns; a bank, both abrupt and sloping; a Leicestershire bullfinch, and the novelty of the Continental triple bar, consisting of three high bamboo bars on movable trestles.

These could be arranged at any required distance from one another, which meant that the horses had to clear a good 20 feet. Then there was the celebrated sheep-pen jump, in which the rider had to leap into the pen, and out on the other side, the finish and most difficult feat being the bank, which was a turfed embankment of five feet high, the horse having to leap, not over it, but on top of it, and descend the slope on the other side.

The bringing in of the fences was in itself stirring. White-wigged postilions of the old style, rode in pairs of grey horses harnessed to capacious wagons, and in a few minutes all was complete.

Decidedly the drama of the exhibition was the jumping, while the riding of the foreign cavalry officers, who had not before been seen in England, was one of the sensations, for there are no finer horsemen in the world, unless from among the Cossacks and the cowboys, and their talents are especially distinguished in taking the banks and big, stiff fences at full speed.

Through the heavy wooden and iron doors there trotted in one by one, French, Belgian, American, and Spanish horsemen, who were to teach the English how to high-jump, over forty coming to the post, their brilliant uniforms adding the last touch of colour to the scene.

The first horse touched the triple bar, but otherwise did a perfect course, though at the five feet bank which finishes the latter, he slid along the platform prone, and on all fours, and, like many of the English horses, could scarcely recover his legs.

It was a remarkable sight to see the string of horses take the gates, bars, bushes, and fences in the glare of thousands of electric lights; the row of wooden posts was an ugly jump always. The terrible triple-bar, most risky of all the Continental jumps, now introduced to English horsemen for the first time, was constantly crashing down, amid half-sustained shrieks from the women in the audience, as the riders were thrown, or jerked on the necks of their steeds, and it was here that all the British officers came to grief, though they took their fences with the abandon and dash of a quick burst in the shires. Indeed their riding was remarkably clever and plucky, considering that they had never before been through such a performance, and were all riding green horses. The latter broke into a gallop as they approached the sloping bank, with a deep and abrupt fall on the far side, swinging sharply to the left, and took at tremendous speed the circle of jumps, each distinct from the rest, then finished down the middle, taking this time, not the slope, but the wall of the bank, and so disappeared through the gates into the stables.

All the other obstacles fell when the horse collided with them, but, as one of the competitors remarked, "There's no give in that bank," and it was here that nearly all of the mishaps occurred. A Lifeguardsman went at the bank as if he were charging an army, but the horse sprang short, and his rider was shot high over his head. He turned a complete somersault, and fell on his back on the top of the bank; the horse followed, and appeared to jump on the prostrate rider. Ring attendants and judges ran towards him, but the lieutenant picked himself up smartly—he had not released his hold of the reins—and mounting the hunter on the top of the bank, rode it down the slope, and out of the arena, amid enthusiastic plaudits for his pluck.

England was not alone in the matter of mishaps. One of the 2nd Chausseurs à Cheval, of the Belgian Army, although a splendid steeplechase rider, also fell at the bank. He went round the course at a smart gallop, and cleared everything without registering a touch. His beautiful bay gelding went at the bank at full speed, but appeared to make no attempt to rise at it—the animal's chest struck the vertical side of the embankment, his rider shot into the air, and he too fell on his back. The lieutenant landed on top of the bank, and the horse remained below.

A mettlesome bay mare from Belgium, ridden by an officer who wore the gorgeous uniform of the 2nd Belgian Lancers, refused the first obstacle, and ran round it; refused the second, and dashed among the judges, scattering them right and left. After five minutes' display of temper all over the arena, she was ordered out, and eventually, with some persuasion, went, having jumped nothing but the judges' table.