STABLES AND STABLE MANAGEMENT 119 



before hunting. As there are various patent 

 shoes, it is best, when purchasing a hunter, to 

 ask the vendor what shoe the horse has 

 been in the habit of wearing, for a sudden 

 change in the nature of the shoe is apt to 

 cause lameness. 



In concluding this chapter, we must apologise for 

 the terse manner in which we have made our remarks. 

 But the hints which we have felt it to be necessary 

 to give to the inexperienced owner of hunters are so 

 many, and our space is so confined, that we must beg 

 the forgiveness of the reader, if we have sacrificed 

 literary style to utility of information. It has been 

 our experience that many men, at the outset of their 

 hunting careers, have been deceived by those to whose 

 advantage it was to deceive them. This experience 

 has been our reason for entering minutely into financial 

 details. Besides, men who have kept horses all their 

 lives constantly ask us what their corn bills and 

 saddlery bills ought to be, so we sincerely hope that 

 the statistics which we have given may enable them 

 to gain some practical knowledge. 



