AMATEURS RIDE WELL

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 22, 25 July 1935, Page 6

AMATEURS RIDE WELL

WAVERLEY POINT-TO-POINT

There have been some efforts during the last few years to belittle the ability of the gentlemen riders, and suggestions have been made that clubs should cut these races from their programmes. Happily their voices have passed unheeded (writes "Hurry On"), and the present standard of riding among the amateurs is higher than it has been for years. At Waverley last Saturday the general standard would have been a credit to the professionals. Mr. S. F. Besley's display on Dracula was outstanding. Most horsemen would have-pulled up when the saddle started to. slip, but not Mr. Besley. He jumped no less than seven fences afterwards and finished with the saddle dangling underneath his mount.

Mr. R. A. Watkins also displayed courage and skill on Flower Bag at the first double when he jumped the second fence with one foot out of the stirrup. Mr. W. Hicks rode Ngareta like a veteran, and those two youngsters, Messrs. A. and N. Lupton, demonstrated that1 they knew something about riding horses. The two Cole boys from Motonui are also capable riders, though- their weights do not give them the opportunities of maiw of the others.