292 THE CONDITION OF HUNTERS 



peated violence — it is a good custom for all sports- 

 men to cause the joints of a horse, after a day's hunt- 

 ing, to be weU fomented with flannels dipped in warm 

 water ; and some warm flannel clothes or rollers 

 should be moderately bound thereon for the ensuing 

 night." 



Before I dismiss this part of my subject I must 

 observe, that in nothing do horses differ so much as 

 in the nature, or rather quality, of their legs. True 

 it is, that perfect security against accidents is not 

 consistent with the scheme of Nature : on the contrary, 

 we may say, a certain insecurity is inseparable from 

 the delicacy of all animal structure. Nevertheless, 

 some horses are hard-ridden for several successive 

 years, and yet their limbs remain uninjured. This 

 can only be accounted for, I think, by the balance 

 between the power of exertion, and the capability of 

 resisting the shock that exertion produces, being pretty 

 equally divided. For instance, a horse with a heavy 

 man on his back must receive a severe shock in alight- 

 ing from a high leap ; but still, if the inert power of 

 resisting that shock bear a relation to the muscular 

 power with which he springs at it, he is not likely to 

 receive injury from it.^ I am not now going to enter 

 into the mechanical structure of the animal, and thence 

 to account for the vast difference we find in the legs 

 of horses ; but I have always preferred those in which 

 the shank or cannon-bone is short, and which are a 



^ This is the case with a man. The elasticity of his hmbs is 

 always accommodated to his activity. Were it not so, half the 

 opera dancers would break down. 



