234 THE POST AND THE PADDOCK. 



hands, this contingency was kept alive, and she died 

 in giving birth to a colt by Vandyke junior, in her 

 old owner's paddock. A Sir Joshua mare called 

 Cashmere was similarly bred, and after being bought 

 at Melton Fair for 38, passing through Mr. Maxe's 

 hands, and making 350 guineas at Tattersall's, she 

 became the property of the late Mr. John Moore, of 

 the old Melton Club, for 300 guineas, and was in his 

 stud when he died. 



Our own impression is, that to secure a good 

 hunter the size should be on the side of the dam, 

 and the breeding on that of the sire. A large roomy 

 mare should be put to a small, compact blood horse. 

 Sir Harry Goodricke, whose courtesy and discrimi- 

 nation of character, both in man and horse, has never 

 been surpassed, was especially particular on this point, 

 and would never buy a hunter whose sire was not 

 thorough-bred. Still, ideas of hunters differ so 

 widely, that we can only observe that one of the very 

 worst faults they can acquire is not to care for falling, 

 and fall back ourselves on the following masterly 

 analysis, with which we have been favoured by one 

 of the finest horsemen and judges of the day. " Had 

 I to choose a hunter," he says, "by seeing one point 

 only, it should be his head ; for I never knew one 

 with a small, clean, intelligent face and prominent 

 eyes to be bad. I like his neck also to be muscular, 

 but not heavy ; shoulders well back, with long arms ; 

 short from the knee to the fetlock ; pasterns rather 

 long, but not upright ; his feet cannot well be de- 

 scribed on paper, but they should be large and per- 

 fect, or all the rest is as ' leather and prunella/ His 

 back should not be too short, and he should have 

 stout loins and wide hips, and good length from the 

 latter to his hocks, which should be rather turned 

 inwards. Added to this, he should be large round 

 the girth, but whether in depth or width does not 



