Breeding of Hunters. 305 



cart-horses, and they certainly are improving. Still, 

 their young things do not seem to get the size their 

 Northern brethren do, perhaps owing in a manner to 

 the dry soil and air of the East of England. Their 

 cart stock are small, compact, and hardy ; and any 

 recruiting sergeant will say that the Suffolk lads are 

 proverbially small, though strong. The " riders" bred 

 are mostly wiry and good, and when ridden over this 

 cramped and thickly-fenced country become very 

 clever, and sought after accordingly by the dealers 

 (Mr. Collins especially), who are almost the only cus- 

 tomers, at all prices from 75/. to 2OO/. Still there has 

 been no particular breeder of hunters since the late 

 Mr. Jenney's death, and there are but few good 

 mares. A few have been brought from the North, but 

 generally Cleveland mares, with coaching shoulders 

 a mistake in a county where they so seldom get the 

 size for a coach horse, and had better try for hunters 

 and hacks. 



Go where you will, you always find some one who 

 wants a good hunter or a good hack ; but although 

 every one wants either one or the other, few will take 

 the trouble to breed one. Many have not the con- 

 veniences, and many think they may not live long 

 enough to ride one they do breed. The wonder is, 

 not that there are so few riding horses, but that there 

 are so many. All people in these days look to a 

 quick return ; and as a riding horse is at least five 

 years old before he is worth anything, they think it 

 " a bad spec," and too long to look forward. There 

 are plenty of race horses, cart horses, and coach horses 

 bred ; and the why and wherefore is, because they 

 come quickly into use. A racing colt is put into 

 training at twenty months old ; a good cart colt is 

 worth at least 35 guineas at a year old ; and the 

 London coach horses, by thorough-bred horses out of 

 Clydesdale or Cleveland mares, are bought by the 

 dealer at three years old at an average price of 100 



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