42 Breeds of Horses 



standard, and this is really a difificulty sometimes. It will, I think, 

 be best met by endeavouring to breed a medium-sized horse, under 

 rather than over i6 hands, and by bearing in mind that originally 

 the Hackney was a riding as well as a harness horse. 



In selecting a stallion or brood mares the breeder must pay 

 special attention to pasterns, shoulders, and hocks, and must insist 

 on straight well-balanced action. If this policy is followed, saleable 

 horses should be bred. 



Hunters 



[Plates, facing pp. 80, 81) 



The term "hunter" embraces a wide area, and is applied to 

 all sorts of horses, from the upstanding, well-balanced, well-bred 

 horse that carries his master right up to the tail of the hounds to 

 Master Johnnie's " hunter ", who is generally a shaggy Shetland 

 Pony. That there are hunters and hunters a visit to any big show 

 will abundantly testify, but all the classes of hunters are not found 

 in the showyard nowadays, whatever may have been the case when 

 Hunters and Coach Horses were classified together, as I believe is 

 the case even yet at some old-established and old-fashioned agri- 

 cultural shows. For the showing of Hunters, as they have come 

 to be more and more classified, has got into the hands of men who 

 make of it a speciality, and who have come to recognize that there 

 are only two or three sorts that can be shown with any chance 

 of success. 



We see the hunter in his " infinite variety " at any important 

 fixture of a provincial pack. For I would rather take a good pro- 

 vincial pack than one in the Shires for finding the different kinds 

 of horses which are classified as hunters. The well-bred weight 

 carrier, nearly Thoroughbred; the handsome middle-weight hunter; 

 the galloping light-weight horse, shaped like, and in all probability, 

 a clean Thoroughbred — all these you will see at any fixture in the 

 Shires. But there are others. For instance, there is the hack hunter, 

 who shows his sporting master a good day's sport to-day, and two 

 days later is taking him round the country on his business. He is 

 not so much in evidence as he was, but he is a valuable possession 

 if one of the right sort. The hunting doctor always had something 

 good of this sort, but since he has taken to going his rounds in 

 a motor car the sort is not so much in evidence. An old friend 

 of the writer used to drive out in his gig, see several patients, then 

 put up at a farmhouse, saddle his horse — he took his hunting saddle 

 and bridle with him in the gig — and have a spin with the hounds. 

 He would finish his professional visits as he returned home. I 



