2^it(ing to ?|ount(^. 147 



blood, and the quietest even might err under such 

 trying circumstances, and to kick or otherwise injure 

 a hound now, would be, I am sure, to spoil a day's 

 sport, upon which, otherwise, 3'ou would look back 

 in years to come with pleasure in your diary. 



But all is over now, so tighten your girths ever so 

 little to admit of your re-mounting, wish good day 

 to your friends, and turn your game, good horse's 

 head for home, regulating the pace at which you 

 proceed thither to the exertions he has undergone 

 and the distance to be traversed. 



You can lay down no rule on this head, but if he 

 is not really distressed, I have found myself that 

 from six to six-and-a-half miles per hour usually 

 about meets the case, for it is better, surely, to get 

 him back to his own box half-an-hour earlier, than 

 to delay his return to home and its surrounding 

 comforts by crawling thither out of misjudged kind- 

 ness at a still slower rate. If your horse is distressed, 

 ever so little, or even only blown, do not hesitate to 

 let him wash his mouth out at any clear running 

 stream ; he won't swallow much with his bit in his 

 mouth, and what little he does will not hurt him, 

 but, on the contrary, refresh him a great deal, by 

 cleansing his mouth and lips from such foam, etc., 

 as is usually attendant on severe exertions. If you 

 stop to give him gruel on your way home, which you 



