Hunters 43 



cannot say I view such a plan with unqualified approval, but as 

 in these days there is not much likelihood of its being adopted, 

 it is scarcely worth while to spend time in criticism. 



Then there is the lady's hunter, which once meant any nonde- 

 script in the stable which no one else would ride, but which is now 

 generally a high-class middle-weight hunter — a lady should always 

 be mounted on a horse up to a couple of stone over her weight. 

 The old man's horse, short-legged, somewhat sober, but full of 

 quality, and with a character peculiarly his own, is not the least 

 valuable of the lot of horses which will be seen on such an occasion. 

 He is a horse which cannot carry his owner right up to hounds, but 

 he is one on which a man who knows the country, and who will 

 jump a fair-sized fence on occasion, will see a lot of sport, and on 

 which he is not unlikely to be " there " at the end of the run of the 

 season before the gentleman who has gone into every field with 

 hounds. And so we go on down the scale till we come to horses 

 which can only be called hunters because they are ridden hunting. 



It has been well said by the late Sir Richard Green Price that 

 the Hunter is a type and not a breed. Many years ago an attempt 

 was make to make a breed of hunters, and it has, so far, signally 

 failed. Nor does there seem to be any prospect of success, at any 

 rate in the immediate future. The drawing up of certain conditions 

 of entry into a stud book, and the publication of a certain number 

 of volumes of a stud book, are not of themselves sufficient to con- 

 stitute a breed. To make a breed it is necessary that the mating 

 of a horse and mare, bred on stud-book lines, should result in a foal 

 of the same characteristics as the sire and dam, and these char- 

 acteristics this stock should have the power of transmitting to their 

 offspring, and so on. This, where there is very high up in the pedi- 

 gree a considerable quantity of alien blood — cart horse, perhaps — 

 is a thing that cannot be looked for with any degree of confidence 

 Then there is another reason why a Hunter breed is scarcely likely 

 to be formed successfully. It is above all things necessary, as 

 pointed out above, that the sires of any breed should be hardy 

 in constitution, and that they should have their capabilities tested 

 by some more reliable trials than those of the show ring. How is 

 the half-bred Hunter sire to be tested? Racing him is an impossi- 

 bility. The days of half-bred racing are over for ever in this 

 country, and it is well that it is so. In the hunting field he 

 would scarcely be tolerated, besides which, if he were, for many 

 and obvious reasons it would be impossible to be sure that the test 

 was a sufficiently satisfactory one. 



So I think we may fairly hold with Sir Richard Green Price 



