THE STABLE AND ITS MANAGEMENT 59 



regular time ; and if one handful of good hay be found 

 in his rack, he should have no more till next stable 

 time, when his appetite will be sharp. If given to eat 

 his straw, the setting-muzzle, in this case, must be 

 made use of. 



In consequence of the lateness of the hour of meet- 

 ing with hounds — now seldom before eleven o'clock — 

 hunters do not require so much food as they formerly 

 did, when they were out a much greater number of 

 hours from their stables ; and there is no doubt, but 

 at the pace hounds now go, an empty stomach is 

 necessary, or why put the muzzle on the race-horse ? 

 In Leicestershire this short allowance of hay has been 

 carried to a great extreme ; but a full belly will not do 

 for that country ; and amongst the Meltonians horses 

 are not required to come out often, owing to their 

 generally having such large studs. 



Hunters are not always to be fed alike ; allowance 

 should be made for the distance to covert ; for when 

 a horse has to go twelve or fourteen miles in a morning 

 to meet hounds, he may be allowed a little more hay 

 overnight than if he had but four or five, as he will 

 empty his stomach on the road, and there is reason to 

 expect a long day. As to whether a hunter should 

 have any water on the morning of hunting, that is a 

 point not so much considered as it ought to be, for we 

 should be guided by his constitution. If he is apt to 

 scour, and throw off his meat on the road, I should 

 recommend his having none ; but if, on the other 

 hand, he holds his meat well in him, has some distance 

 to go, and is not called on till ten or eleven o'clock in 



