228 THE HORSE BOOK. 



sort of a saddle horse, if 'to be used for ordinary 

 pleasure riding, is bred, but of course the more 

 good blood he has in his veins the longer will 

 he last, the faster will he get over the ground 

 and the more agreeable mount will he prove in 

 general. 



Conspicuous in this group of riding horses is 

 the hunter, but as no great place exists for him 

 in our western equine economy much space need 

 not be devoted to him. The job of the hunter is 

 to carry a human being safely over the coun- 

 try, galloping fast, jumping fences and water as 

 he conies to them and staying over a distance of 

 many miles. There are only a few districts in 

 the United States where hunting is possible, 

 only a few packs of foxhounds and consequently 

 the home demand for hunters is quite circum- 

 scribed. Buyers for export to England keep 

 an eye out for horses of the right stamp for 

 this business at leading American markets and 

 many a good western-bred animal has followed 

 the hounds on the other side in recent years. 



Usually hunters are the get of Thoroughbred 

 stallions, though not always, but whenever the 

 sire is not clean Thoroughbred he is very near- 

 ly so. The blood is required to grant the neces- 

 sary speed and stamina. The type is well por- 

 trayed in the illustration wiry, powerful and 

 of the " varmint " order. Hunting is a harder 

 business than racing. The negotiation of such 

 obstacles as board fences, hedges, stone walls, 

 high banks with or without deep, wide ditches 

 on one side or other of them, and wide stretches 

 of water, continually recurring in runs of all 



