FOR THE FARM ROAD, OR FIELD. 129 



Eoxburgli £50 yearly in prizes for hunting stock to tenant 

 farmers within the limits of his hunt, at a public dinner in con- 

 nection with the Show, stated that, " He not only wished them to 

 breed hunters, but liked to see them in the hunting field riding 

 their young horses." This is the true ring of a patriotic heart, a 

 noble, crenerous nature whose motto is "live and let live." No 

 one knows better than His Grace that a farmer, with pluck and 

 determination to take and keep his position at the tail of the 

 hounds with his promising youngster, is the man that will bring 

 most energy to bear on the conduct and management of his 

 farm ; and we hold that a farmer is as much in his place in the 

 hunting field — preparing, and educating a young horse, which 

 will probably enable him to draw a cheque from his land- 

 lord or others to the amount, it may be, of his half year's rent 

 — as he would be at home engaged in the most drudging occupa- 

 tion upon the farm. No one would deem it right or proper for 

 any farmer dependant on his farm for means of support to appear 

 day after day at the covert side, but only that he should embrace 

 the opportunity when the hounds come near his homestead. 



How, then, shall we breed this hunter ? By a careful selection 

 of the dam, which should not have less blood in her veins than lialf, 

 or three parts. If bone and substance can be obtained, the more 

 blood the better. We have ourselves bred thorough-bred horses 

 (in the stud-book) as hunters which were very rarely beaten in 

 the Highland, Koyal, or other show-yards, and afterwards made 

 their mark in the hunting field, but as a rule it is not prudent 

 for farmers to meddle with them. AVe shall therefore confine 

 our attention to the half-bred : all horses coming under this 

 denomination which are not pure. What we want to achieve is 

 a horse able to carry from 14 to 16 stones with hounds, wiiich 

 will always command a high figure. If unfitted by accident 

 or otherwise for a hunter, he is always valuable for the 

 plough or cart, to drag the family to church or market, or to sell 

 for town work at a fair price. In breeding for road or field our 

 aim ought ever to be the shape and make of a hunter. We 

 recollect many years ago selling a young blood-horse at York 

 fair to Mr Wimbusli, one of the greatest of London job-masters, 

 for his son to ride. On asking if he ever bought lumters, ho 

 replied, " Very many, but not to make hunters of ; my best and 

 most stylish harness horses are all bred and fitted for being made 

 into liunters." And true it is, a liunter, by training and educa- 

 tion, develops into the stylish, high-steppinir pliaeton or carriage 

 horse, while the purely harness horse, i.e., witli u[)riglit shoulders 

 — not out of place in a harness horse — can never l)e made a 

 liunter. Taking, then, tlie most perfect shape of a hunter for 

 our ideal, the perfection of which is so brieily summed up by a 

 master's hand, the ever to be lamented sj)orting novelist and 

 Lhorougli gentleman, Major Whyte Melville, in these lines — 



I 



