1t., CARRIAGE HORSES AS HUNTERS 181 



more care and attention has to be paid to their legs. 

 Yet we do not think that pulling a dog-cart on the 

 hard road does them as much harm as beinsj hacked 

 on the hard road. But either hacking or harness 

 work will soon make any weakness in the legs 

 apparent, and puffiness will follow in the affected 

 part, which must be attended to at once. A friend, 

 who is only a two-horse man, told us this season 

 that neither of his two horses had ever been idle 

 for a single day since they had been in his stable. 

 One he had had six years, and the other seven years. 

 He regularly hacks them, and drives them in a light 

 dog-cart all the year round, and both of them see 

 hounds at least once a week, often three times a 

 fortnight, during the season. Both these horses are 

 nearly thoroughbred ; both are perfect hunters, either 

 with fourteen stone, or a light lady on their backs, 

 and one is one of the smartest trappers it was ever 

 our lot to drive behind. Our friend, who is his own 

 stud-groom, assured us that, even on Sundays, his 

 horses never remained in the stable the whole of 

 the day, and that in this fact lay the secret of their 

 hard condition. "How would you like to remain in 

 the house all day, let alone to be confined in a single 

 room ? " he asked us. Besides, as a rule, the two- 

 horse man keeps his horses to work, and not to look 

 at. On the other hand, we know a gentleman who 

 keeps two horses of a similar stamp, which he never 

 puts in harness, and never gets on their backs 

 except on hunting days. His groom, probably, gets 

 more enjoyment out of them than he does. One 



