26 NOTES FOE huntixg-:men 



than external shape, and that of two horses, one 

 perfect in shape, but of an mferior strain of blood, 

 and the other of the most winning blood, but not 

 so well formed in shape, the latter will be the most 

 likely to perform to the satisfaction of his owner on 

 the race com'se.' 



Encom-age your groom, too, to believe in the 

 individuality of his charges. Most good grooms 

 do so, and study the humours and whims of each 

 horse as a good mother those of her children. Un- 

 less he does, he will never get the most out of your 

 best horses, for it is they who are usually the most 

 nervous and highly strung, and, therefore, if 

 treated purely as machines, the most troublesome 

 to feed. 



Whilst we are in the sentimental vein, let me, 

 at a risk of being deemed discursive, plead for a 

 little pity at 3^our hands for your friend who has 

 carried you well through several seasons, and, 

 when the time comes that, owing to age and 

 infirmity contracted in your service, he is past 

 your work, do not send him up to the hammer, but 

 think for a moment what will be the last days of a 

 hardly worked and well- spent life which has been 

 passed ministering to your pleasure. Picture the 

 misery of it to this carefully nurtured animal, who 

 has had the best of everything all his days —the 

 exposure, the foul stable, the possible ill-treatment 



