SOME NOTABLE JUMPS.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1155, 20 November 1879, Page 3

SOME NOTABLE JUMPS.

As there was a very much divided

opinion at late • matches as to whether the jumps were large or small; it may interest our readers if we mention some of the most remarkable jumps niado by horses which are on record. At the last Birmingham Horse and 'Hound Show. Mr Robert learaon's hunters, Surety and Coufidenoe, each took a first prize m the jnmping contests. Surrey was so excited that after olearing the water jump splendidly, he jumped clean over

> J the spectators, who were about sis deep. The distance that he cleared was measured, and found to be 37 feet. The rider, Mr Henry Grayson, stuck to the pigskin manfully, and remarkable to relate no one was hurt. The "Evening 3tandard" sa ys : — " Our correspondent's teleprams from Birmingham, to the the effect that at the Horse and Hound Show a hunter named Surrey, after clearing the water jump leaped the bar of the ring and covered the measured distance of 37 feet, will perhaps create some litte interest and recall some famous historical jumps. The best known is the leap of Chandler at Warwick Steeplechase, which is very generally put at the same measurement as that accredited to the animal alludod to at Birmingham, but, m reality it was ,39 feet. Chandler putting on extra steam for the purpose of clearing a small brook and seven or eight horses which had come to grief on its banks. This was authenticated about two years ago by the owner. Mr William Peel, who saw the leap taken and goc an actual measurement irotn two gentlemen, who took the trouble to ascertain it by the tape. The famous steeplechaser, Lottery, is credited with, a 33-feet leap at Leamington m 1840, and a horse named Vanguard (afterwards Werner), with' 36 feet over a small fence at Rugby. Dick Christian, m one of his quaint lectures, says that he rode a horse of Sir James Musgrave's over a bull-finch, and thinking his animal had been a "long time m the air," had the jump measured, and found it 35^ feet. Sir Charles Knightley on Benvolie, leaped a fence and brook near Brixworth Hill, which measured 31 fe'efc. .At Athlone, m 1861, a grey mare named Arab Maid, belonging to Mr Persse, of Galway, m clearing a stone wall m the Gary Castle Handicap, covered 35 feet. But perhaps the biggest jump on record, and which is fairly authenticated, was that taken by Mr Thomas Webb, of Easenhall, who, on a horse belonging to Lord Ingeafcre, cleared 39 feet 6 inches across a sand-pit/