OF FARRIERY. 



27 



fast, will, in all probability, instead of decreas- 

 ing', increase any inflammatory disposition the 

 system may be susceptible of ; but if you 

 notice at the first, that the Horse does not 

 dung, or empty himself freely, as Horses 

 generally do when in health, this will draw 

 your attention to the Horse, and he must have 

 speedy relief, to prevent disease coming on in 

 a more dangerous form *. 



ON THE MANAGEMENT OF 

 HUNTERS. 



After what has been said in the preceding 

 article, there remains to be noticed the method 

 to get your hunters into condition, and the care 

 and management of them through the season. 

 Hunters are usually turned into good grass 

 after the season is over, though a great deal 

 has been said by "Nimrod" against such a 

 practice ; still I have seen its good effects as 

 oflen as stabling them ; and, perhaps, it is a 

 sood thins: that we should not all be of the 

 same opinion, and, for this reason, we cannot 

 always tell how to draw the line ; one man 

 may have convenience to stable his hunters all 

 the summer, and ten others not ; consequently, 

 an additional expence would be incurred, and 

 pounds, shillings, and pence, is a material ob- 

 ject of the present day, and with those who it 

 would be the least suspected. But as this 

 treatise on the management of hunters is for 

 the use of hunting men in general, I shall go 

 upon general principles, which I know to be 

 correct, and the manner in which I have treated 

 my own Horses. 



Grass, it is well known, be it of ever so good 



* We beg to inform our readers, that when we come to 

 treat of diseases to which the Horse is liable, we shall not 

 *'orget to instruct them how to act in the above cases. 



in quality, is not a substantial food, it is cooling 

 and opening ; and though it makes a Horse 

 fleshy, it, nevertheless, is not that description 

 of flesh as the Horse could work on : if you 

 were to attempt to gallop him to that excess, 

 as you are necessitated when hunting, you 

 would find the Horse faint and weak, the fat 

 that had accumulated in the cellular mem- 

 branous cavities, which intersect the muscle 

 all over the body, would evaporate in the 

 form of a white lathering sweat ; and, if 

 checked, might produce inflammation of the 

 lungs, and the Horse become a subject for the 

 knackers ; therefore, the first thing to be done 

 to alter this state of the system in the best 

 and most expeditious manner, is to bleed and 

 physic, but that with caution, always paying 

 great attention to the constitution of the 

 Horse. 



No person has a greater aversion to bleeding 

 and physicking than myself I have been 

 always in the habit of treating my own 

 Horses much after the same maiwier that I 

 would myself; which was, never to take 

 medicine unless I perceived an absolute neces- 

 sity for it ; for I have made a remark, that all 

 medical men that I have been intimate with 

 (and I have known a great many), have 

 prescribed medicine to their patients for the 

 most trifling complaints, but took none them- 

 selves, unless they were extremely ill, and 

 thought there was some danger. 



Judging I must be right in following their 

 example, I, therefore, never take medicine 

 myself, or administer it to my Horses, unless I 

 am fully persuaded there is a real necessity 

 for it : however, to return to our subject. 



In the case of Horses being taken up from 

 grass, the warmth of the stable is very apt to 

 make them have an inclination to itch, and. 



