OF FARRIERY. 



443 



upon Ins back, must be excess! /e. Training 

 must comnrietice with two or three doses of 

 physic, should the Horse be gross, and not 

 have been previously trained. A young Horse, 

 in his first (raining, will require most work ; 

 but it is an error of the surest side, rather to 

 under-do this business, than exceed, because, 

 if a Horse come into the field rather under- 

 worked, being full of good meat and heart, 

 the easy remedy is to favour and ride him 

 carefully the first week or two, but should 

 your training groom set you upon a Horse 

 harassed and weakened by too much exer- 

 cise, he will get worse as the season advances, 

 and perhaps be totally ruined by the end ; 

 exclusive of the probable disgrace of failing 

 you in a long and important day. Old hunters 

 from spring grass, which they ever ought to 

 enjoy, can scarcely be trained too lightly ; the 

 true test is, that their wind in its course be 

 free and ufiembarrassed ; to that point, how- 

 ever, their exercise must at any rate extend. 

 The lighter the Horse's clothing the better, 

 in view of the heats and colds he must neces- 

 sarily undergo in the chase. An early morn- 

 ing's gallop, at a good steady stride, but not 

 speedy, of a mile or two, with a canter after 

 water in the afternoon, is sufficient for the 

 hunter, and two months ought to bring him 

 into good condition. A young Horse may 

 have, once a week, a tolerably sharp rally for 

 one or two miles, a method which should 

 never be practised with a seasoned hunter, to 

 M'hich, indeed, walking exercise may be often 

 substituted for the gallop. 



Some think that even the simple process 

 now described is not necessary, and that 

 Horses that are taken up and worked in the 

 day, and with a feed or two of corn, and turned 

 out at night, with an open stable or shed to 



run into if they please, are as active, healthy, 

 and enduring, as those who are most carefully 

 trained, and confined to the stable during: the 

 hunting season. Many a farmer has boasted 

 that he can beat the most numerous and the 

 best-appointed field, and that his Horse never 

 wants wind, and rarely tires. 



It is true that the farmer may enjoy a good 

 day's sport on the Horse that carries him to 

 market, or possibly, occasionally performs more 

 menial drudgery ; but the frothy lather with 

 which such a Horse is covered in the early 

 part of the day evinces undeniable inferiority. 

 There is, however, one point on which the 

 untrained Horse has the advantage. Ac- 

 customed to all weathers, he rarely suffers, 

 when, after a sharp burst, there comes a 

 sudden check, and the pampered and shiver- 

 ing stabled Horse is exposed with him for a 

 considerable time to a piercing north-easter. 

 The one cares nothing about it ; the other 

 may carry home the seeds of dangerous dis- 

 ease. 



The hunter may be fixirly ridden twice, or. 

 if not with any very hard days, three times in 

 the week ; but, after a thoroughly hard day, 

 and evident distress, three or four days' rest 

 should be allowed. They who are merciful 

 to their Horses, allow about thirty days work 

 in the course of the season ; with gentle ex- 

 ercise on each of the intermediate days, and 

 particularly a sweat on the day before hunting. 

 There is an account, however, of one Horse 

 who followed the fox-hounds seventy-five 

 times in one season. This feat has never 

 been exceeded. 



We have before said the Horse fully shares 

 in the enthusiasm of his rider. It is beautiful 

 to watch the old hunter, who, after many a 

 winters' hard work, is turned into the park to 



