OBJECTIONS ANSWERED 205 



stall between two that have been summered in the 

 house, and chalk is not more unlike cheese than is her 

 condition unHke that of her neighbours. One of these 

 is the mare that was sweated in August till " the sweat 

 ran off her like water," which X. B. seems to think so 

 cruel and so weakening, Perhaps he is not aware 

 that some of our first-rate stallions are sweated once 

 a week during the covering season. 



After what I have now said I have done with pro- 

 ducing proofs of the good effects of summering the 

 hunter in the house, and shall conclude the subject 

 with mentioning an occurrence which happened — 

 rather a propos — with the mare I have just been speak- 

 ing of. I rode her to call on my next-door neighbour, 

 who keeps a pack of fox-hounds ; and when he saw 

 her, he exclaimed, " Ah ! you have had your mare 

 clipped, have you ? " " No," said I, " she is not 

 cUpped, but she is in clipping condition," which is 

 a much better thing. She now dries after a sweat in 

 three minutes, which my neighbours can testify. Where 

 is the horse which has been summered in the fields that 

 will do this ? Another circumstance took place with 

 the Brighton harriers last winter. I was riding 

 another mare which had three years' hard meat in her, 

 when we were caught in a very shower of rain. In 

 about ten minutes after it was over, Mr Carr, the 

 gentleman who manages the Lewes harriers, rode up 

 to me and said, " Your mare puts me in mind of a 

 dirty boot by the side of a clean one." " Why so ? " 

 said I. " Because she is dry, and every other horse 

 (seventy in number) in the field is wet," was his 



