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By CLIVE CARNIE
Democrat Staff Writer
The sport of steeplechasing, wb n has become a colorful fall tradition in Virginia, traces its beginnings to 18th century England.
The story varies from teller to teller, but essentially the sport began as a race among several foxhunters following a morning of (probably unsuccessful) hunting.
The horsemen frequently challenged one another as to who had the better, faster horse. Those challenges took the form of races to certain landmarks. Church steeples being the highest points of reference on the rural landscape, the cry was often to race to “yon steeple,” hence a steeple race, or chase.
En route to the church steeple the foxhunters went over, under or through every obstacle in their path. Those obstacles have evolved into the fences at modem steeplechase courses in America.
There are three distinct types of races at a modem steeplechase meet — timber, hurdle or brush, and flat.
A timber race is usually at least three miles long, pitting the horses over about 16 1 timber or wooden fences during that distance. Because of the size of the fences (3feet-6-inches to 4-feet-6-inches) and the dis- . tance of the event, a timber race is often ‘
fairly slow compared to other types of j horse races.
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