THE EFFECTS OF CONDITION 55 



melancholy recreation. The ditches are not only so 

 full of grass, or so " blind," as we say, that the best 

 hunter on earth may be deceived into a fall ; but the 

 country in other respects is not fit to ride over. How- 

 ever soft it may be at the surface from the autumnal 

 rains, the substratum is hard ; and where cattle have 

 trodden in the preceding winter, holes remain, which 

 are not at this time visible, but which serve as a sort 

 of trap for horses' feet, and are particularly dangerous 

 and injurious to old horses. It is not necessary that 

 a hunter should be a perfectly sound horse — that is to 

 say, provided he be not ridden over a country till it 

 is in a state to receive the pressure of his weight, 

 without jarring him at his fences or in his gallop. By 

 the first or second week in November, this is generally 

 the case ; and if a horse has been in the hands of any- 

 thing like a groom, he ought by this time to be pretty 

 well prepared for the field. By long-continued slow 

 work — but increasing in pace as his condition increases 

 — assisted by proper stable management, he ought 

 now to appear by the covert-side with credit and 

 advantage. What this work should be, and in what 

 this stable management should consist, shall be the 

 subject of the following pages. 



The condition of a horse must proceed by slow 

 degrees : it is the work of time ; and it is in vain to 

 expect it on any other terms than as the result of a 

 long course of preparations, followed by severe work. 

 In a clear fortnight after he has had his last dose of 

 physic he should begin to do some work ; for without 

 it no progress can be made. This, however, should 



