66 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



Here then, was a field for experiment. On looking 

 at this horse, I accounted for his not being kept in 

 condition by being satisfied that he never was in con- 

 dition. He looked all head and shoulders, and his 

 belly was gone. I was immediately convinced that 

 there was a debility and a want of tone about him that 

 could alone be got rid of by an entire change of his 

 constitution, and which change could only be effected 

 by the stimulus of high keep, assisted by alterative 

 medicines and good grooming. Suspecting that his 

 organic powers were weakened, and to prepare him 

 for the change, I gave him three doses of very mild 

 physic, only five drachms of aloes at intervals of twelve 

 days, which I found quite sufficient to work him after 

 two days preparation by mashes. In the course of 

 the summer I put him through three courses of mer- 

 curial alteratives, and gave him three feeds of good 

 old oats per day. He was never out of his loose box, 

 except to drink at a pond twice a-day, and ate no green 

 meat, with the exception of a few vetches twice, for 

 six days in succession. He had three more doses of 

 physic, equally mild, in the month of September, and 

 I hunted him the following season. I found him 

 exactly what my friend had described him to be — 

 an uncommonly fine fencer and a good winded horse, 

 but in other respects no better than the common run 

 of hunters. When they were sick, he was far from 

 well, and no liberties could be taken with him. His 

 legs filled after work, his flesh melted away like butter 

 in the sun, and he would not come again, after a hard 

 day, under a week or eight days. 



