204 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



to grass, and yet subject them to these evils. I lately 

 had a remarkable instance of this. A friend of mine, 

 riding very heavy and very hard, came to see me, and 

 by way of punishing him for biting one of his other 

 horse's eyes out in the morning, he rode one of his 

 hunters, a horse I have known for many years, and 

 few people have a better when fit to go. On my 

 observing that he looked like anything but what he 

 should be, I asked him what he had been doing with 

 him in the summer ? " What I ought not to have done 

 with him," was his reply : " I turned him out to grass. 

 He has lost all his muscle, and he is not half the horse 

 he was when he went out. Besides this," added he, 

 " he has got a bad kick on his hock, and is in the 



hands of the veterinary surgeon at , who thinks 



the enlargement will be reduced by continued fomenta- 

 tions." 



The next morning my friend and myself rode out 

 together. His horse was wet with sweat, whilst the 

 one I rode (summered in his stall, with only ten days* 

 soiling) was as dry on every part of his body as when 

 he came out of the stable. 



Your sceptical readers shall have a little more 

 demonstration. A mare which I rode last winter 

 (1823-4) i^^t with an accident ; and being got by 

 Walton out of Highland Lass, I thought she might 

 breed me a racer, so I put her to the horse, and turned 

 her out. She soon got very fat and sound ; but, not 

 proving with foal, I took her up after being out nearly 

 three months, and she has had every justice done by 

 her since she has been in the stable. She stands in a 



