THE HALF-BRED HUNTER 115 



give propelling power, but if these exist with small or diseased hocks the 

 power will be thrown away. In the hunter far more than in the race- 

 horse, the hocks should be well bent, and the stifles high and wide, or the 

 action will be disunited, and the power of shifting the fore-feet so as to 

 avoid holes, etc. will be wanting. Below the hocks and knees the cannon- 

 bones should be large, and the suspensory ligaments and tendons strong, 

 clean, and free, while the pasterns should be strong and shorter than in the 

 race-horse, terminating in feet large enough to avoid sinking in deep ground. 

 In the middlepiece a greater width is desirable than in the race-horse, 

 where excessive speed compels, to some extent, a sacrifice of "bellows 

 room," and a chest slightly wider than in that variety may be admitted as 

 perfection, though still not too wide and open. The back and loins must 

 be strong, and well united to the hips by the back-ribs, being deep and 

 close up, so as to bear the strain given by the superincumbent weight in 

 coming to the ground after a leap. This kind of horse also has great 

 demands upon his stamina, for he is sometimes kept out for a whole day 

 without food, and has generally an empty stomach from nine o'clock in the 

 morning till five or six in the afternoon, which is double the interval best 

 suited to his constitution. Hence a full middlepiece is a desideratum, and 

 in no class of half-bred horse is it so much required, for no other is exposed 

 to such calls upon the digestive organs. The race-horse even when deprived 

 of his hay by " setting " is allowed plenty of corn a very short time before 

 running, but the hunter may leave his stable at eight or nine o'clock in the 

 morning, and after being out for hours either drawing coverts blank or 

 perhaps getting a moderate run, a fresh fox is found at three o'clock, and 

 he must nevertheless go to the front or his master will despise him. Such 

 a tax can only be borne by digestive organs which have plenty of room, 

 and therefore it is that deep back ribs are so specially looked for by the 

 hunting man of any experience. 



IN HEIGHT the hunter may vary from 15 hands 1 inch to 16 hands 2 

 inches, the former being the lowest limit which as a rule will give size and 

 power sufficient to get over a big place. Exceptions have occurred, such as 

 in Mr. Vevers's Little Tommy, who was not more than 14J hands, and yet 

 both in the steeplechase and hunting field was very nearly A 1, and could 

 carry 11 stone 7 pounds with great ease. Few men, however, like 

 to be mounted on ponies ; and unless your nerve is very great, a big fence 

 looks still bigger when you look up to its top than when you can look down 

 upon it in riding towards it. On the other hand, an overgrown animal is 

 seldom able to do more than carry himself, and frequently he cannot do 

 that for any distance. Here, also, exceptions are met with, and Sir Piers 

 Mostyn's Seventy- Four, who was 17 hands 1 inch, is a case in point, 

 being a splendid hunter, and though not a winner of any great steeplechase, 

 yet running a good second once or twice. 



MANNERS MAKE THE MAN, but still more the hunter ; and without " good 

 manners" no horse can be considered fit for a gentleman to ride to hounds. 

 A strong puller may make an excellent steeplechase horse, as I have 

 already said, but even then he will not be equal to the more composed yet 

 equally high-couraged animal who takes nothing more out of himself than is 

 absolutely requisite for the task he has to perform. And no one who could 



