He asks no favour from the Field, no forward place demands <br />Save what he claims by fearless heart and light and dainty hands; <br />No man need make a way for him at ditch or gap or gate, <br />He rides on level terms with all, if not at equal weight <br /> <br />His eyes are somewhat dimmer than they were in days of yore, <br />A blind fence now might trap him where it never trapped before; <br />But when the rails stand clean and high, the walls stand big and bare, <br />There's no man rides so boldly as there's no man rides so fair. <br /> <br />There is no other in the Field so truly loved as he; <br />We better like to see him out than any younger three; <br />And yet one horseman day by day rides jealous at his rein <br />Old Time that smarts beneath the whip of fifty years' disdain. <br /> <br />He crowds him at his fences, for he envies his renown; <br />Some day he'll Cross him at a leap and bring a good man down, <br />And Time will take a long revenge for years of laughing scorn, <br />And fold the faded scarlet that was ne'er more nobly worn. <br /> <br />Here's luck! Oh! good, grey sportsman! May Time be long defied <br />By careful seat and Cunning hand and health and heart to ride, <br />And when that direful day be come that surely shall befall, <br />We'll know you still unbeaten, save by Time that beats us all!<br /><br />William Henry Ogilvie<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-veteran-6/
