36 HORSES AND EIDING. 



the choice of a few between fifteen one and a half 

 and fifteen two and a half, while you could not 

 perhaps obtain one sound, well-bred horse with good 

 looks at that price that measured sixteen hands. As 

 a rule a man will have more pleasure in possessing 

 and using a good small horse than a moderate horse 

 of greater size. 



Therefore settle what is the most money you can 

 give, and what is the least size you can do with, and 

 then get the best you can of that size and at that 

 price. The same rules will apply very nearly, 

 whether you want to buy a hack or hunter or a 

 harness horse ; but I will imagine that you are 

 going to buy a hunter, for a hack is only a smaller 

 hunter, and any horse that will do to ride will do to 

 drive, and the same merits apply equally in both 

 cases. Now, in buying a horse to hunt a man must, 

 next to the question of ^Drice, be guided by his own 

 weight. The heavier he is, the stronger horse he 

 will require, and the higher price he will have to 

 pay for a horse of any given height ; or, to put it the 

 converse way, the heavier he is the smaller horse he 

 must put up with at any given price. 



Perhaps I shall be better understood if I say that 

 a man who weighs ten stone can get a horse up to 

 his weight for a given price, say lOOL, two inches 

 taller, than the one a man who weighs thirteen stone 

 can get for the same money up to his weight. 



