THE HORSE OX WHICH TO HUNT 11 



spring much below their intrinsic value, and you 

 can make certain that they start the next season 

 properly conditioned. 



Before going further into the matter, you must 



allow me, at the risk of being tedious, and repeathig 



what others before me have said much 



Condition 



better, to impress upon you this question 

 of condition. I do so because I believe it to be the 

 most important point connected with the keeping of 

 hunters to any man who really means to ride up to 

 hounds. Perhaps I could not do better than urge 

 you to read ' Nimrod ' on the ' Condition of Hunters.' 

 Much therein is contrary to the accepted theories 

 of our day, and he is apt to be exceedingly and 

 annoyingly dogmatic ; but all his remarks on con- 

 dition, properly so called, are sound, and should be 

 laid to heart. On this point he did more than any 

 other sporting writer of his day to rouse the ' popular 

 conscience.' In spite, however, of all that has 

 been said on this subject by him and others, many 

 hunting-men still do not attach sufficient import- 

 ance to it. 



You see men, particularly soldiers, get together 

 a stud of horses in September, or later, about which 

 they know little, and expect to be carried well to 

 the front by December, if not before. Perhaps it 

 is fortunate that hounds do not really run their 

 hardest for more than twenty to thirty minutes 



