LETTER VII 



TREATMENT OF HUNTERS IN THE SUMMER 



AS the mariner at the expiration of one 

 voyage repairs his bark for the next, so 

 should the sportsman at the conclusion of 

 one season set about getting his horses 

 into good tune for the one which is to come. I shall, 

 therefore, now proceed to state how I should recom- 

 mend a hunter to be treated when the season is at an 

 end — supposing him to finish it " sound, and well 

 up to his mark." 



The first step I should take would be to put him into 

 a loose box, if convenient, and by degrees diminish 

 his com, giving him an hour's walking exercise every 

 morning as usual. I should then give him two doses 

 of physic, which would not only cool his habit of body 

 so as to prevent the danger of inflammatory attacks, 

 but would have that effect on his legs as to enable 

 me to see what injury had been done to them in his 

 work ; — whether there were any ligamentary enlarge- 

 ments — any injury to the joints or sinews — any callous 

 substances produced by blows — or, in short, anything 

 going wrong. The clear state of his legs which this 

 treatment will produce would prevent the possibility 

 of working in the dark, as they will become finer, to use 



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