44 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



must be best, for, had they not been proper, they 

 would not have been common, 



I have before made some comparisons between the 

 race-horse and the hunter, conceiving the treat- 

 ment of the one to be in many respects applicable 

 to the other. I need not repeat my conviction that 

 condition is equally essential to both. The chief 

 points of difference between them appear to be in the 

 sort of work they are called upon to perform. The 

 one is not more than a few minutes in completing his 

 task ; whereas the other is often ten or twelve hours 

 about his. The preparation, therefore, must be differ- 

 ent ; and much as I admire the economy of the racing 

 stable, particularly their feeding and regularity, I 

 would not fix upon a training groom as exactly quali- 

 fied to get a stud of hunters into condition, any more 

 than I would choose a thistle-whipping huntsman 

 to hunt a pack of fox-hounds. In the first place, the 

 training groom would be apt to draw his horses too 

 fine for the continued fatigue they have to go through ; 

 and in the next, although I admit that there is no 

 strength without wind, yet he would be inclined to 

 give them more of quick work than is necessary to 

 prepare a hunter for the field. Good flesh, as I before 

 observed, is strength ; and in the preparation of a 

 hunter, particularly if he be to carry a heavy man, 

 to get him high in flesh and strong in work is the per- 

 fection of the art of grooming. In one respect, how- 

 ever, the race-horse and the hunter are nearly on equal 

 terms. Each must have work, and each must have 

 rest. The only difference between them here is, that 



