160 THE POCKET AND THE STUD. 



and, indeed, sometimes injudiciously the 

 quantum given depends on what they can be got 

 to eat : this quantum is, however, sometimes in- 

 fluenced by whether they are fed at the trainer's 

 expense or the owner's, and sometimes much more 

 by whether the horse is a favourite with the 

 stable or not. I say sometimes, because, in justice 

 to trainers, I must add there is seldom any fault 

 to be found with them as to starving horses ; how 

 far, in the long run, they contrive to starve the 

 owners, is another affair. As some little insight, 

 however, for the totally uninitiated, I will merely 

 say there are some delicate, nervous horses that 

 can scarcely be coaxed to eat a peck a day (and, 

 generally speaking, that peck is thrown away on 

 such horses) ; others, that are good, fair, hearty 

 horses, will, on an average, eat a peck and a half; 

 while, many gluttons will take, without any 

 trouble, half a bushel a day. 



Hunters, like other horses and men, vary, of 

 course, in their appetites ; but, to make the quan- 

 tum of oats they consume something like definite. 

 I believe it will be found at least, I have always 

 found it so that, taking into account hunting 

 days, when a mash as the last feed supersedes one 

 feed of oats, the day after, when some will eat 

 but little, others perhaps none, occasionally a 

 day or two of indisposition, a frost, when a dose 

 of physic is better than a bushel of corn, and 

 other contingencies, in a stable of horses during 



