116 THE POCKET AND THE STUD. 



this might deceive us if we merely trusted to our 

 nose, for I have smelt hay very fragrant that had 

 been more heated than it should be to be for a 

 galloping horse. Horses like it, and I have heard 

 people say it fattens. I suspect its fattening 

 quality is chiefly that horses, if allowed to do so, 

 will eat a great deal of it, no recommendation 

 to a hunter's stable. But we will suppose the 

 hay to be sweet, fragrant, and of a good colour, 

 showing it had been got up free from wet, and 

 not overheated in the rick. Now as to its quality 

 and substance. 



It used to be a received opinion among grooms, 

 and, indeed, many others, that hunters should 

 eat none but " good hard hay." Now, nothing 

 in the shape of sweet hay could be more improper 

 to give any horse intended for fast work than 

 such hay ; nor, indeed, is it desirable for any 

 horse or beast. 



First, then, for galloping horses, the great 

 desideratum is to get into them the greatest pos- 

 sible quantity of nourishment in the least possible 

 compass; consequently, whatever we give them 

 should, of course, be the most nutritious of its 

 kind. Of what does this " good hard hay " con- 

 sist, and what constitutes its hardness ? Its 

 hardness is simply this there is a much larger 

 proportion of a kind of grass called " bent " in it 

 than there is in softer hay. Now, let any one 

 examine this bent, which cannot be mistaken from 



