50 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



sufficient, if well prepared by bran mashes before- 

 hand. It is ridiculous to see a horse in physic in July, 

 just taken out of the open air, where he has been for 

 three months, clothed up and hooded. He wants 

 nothing of the sort : he may be riddden out naked ; 

 and if he refuse warm water, which most probably 

 he will, he may drink at the first pond or running 

 stream he meets with in his exercise. No one holds 

 the danger from the operation of physic more cheap 

 than I do. I could fill a volume with all the nonsense 

 I have heard grooms, and sometimes their masters, 

 talk on this subject. I conceive that, with common 

 caution, a horse is in no more danger from a dose of 

 physic than his master is from a dose of salts. I do 

 not approve of strong physic ; because it is useless to 

 give it, when a mild dose, with proper preparation, 

 will do what is required. 



To return to the hunter. By the time he is ready 

 for his second dose, he will be, in some measure, re- 

 conciled to the change of temperature — from the open 

 air to that of a confined stable — and a little more 

 caution is necessary during the operation of it. Unless 

 the weather happens to be very warm, he should have 

 a hood on him if he goes out early in the morning, and, 

 at all events, one warm body cloth, or his coat may 

 receive a check which it will not recover for some 

 time. If he has had his first dose a day or two after 

 he was taken up — say the 20th of July — allowing 

 seven clear days between the setting of each dose, he 

 will be through it all by about the 17th of August, 

 up to which time, and for a week afterwards, he should 



