SUMMERING & CONDITIONING OF HUNTERS 77 



increased by another feed, a handful of peas or 

 beans being given to any old horse which may 

 need it. 



September 15 to November 1. — By this time 

 the daily exercise should be increased to three hours, 

 and the horses fed as during the hunting season. 

 Any particularly gross horse should be sweated by 

 giving him a long trot in clothing. This is prefer- 

 able to galloping, which knocks the legs about. I 

 should strongly advise strict order being given that 

 no horse is, under any circumstance, to be galloped, 

 unless by the owner or in his presence. If the 

 horses have been regularly getting the amount of 

 slow work laid down above, a very few gallops will 

 be sufficient to clear their pipes. 



To do this, if possible, ride your horse a few 

 days cub-hunting. Unless the ground is excep- 

 tionally hard, which it sometimes is 



Cub-hnntiug 



(especially in the Midlands) in October, 

 there is no better preparation for the hunting 

 season. In many books you will be recommended 

 to increase the exercise to four hours a day. I tried 

 it and found my animal stale at the beginning of 

 November. Three hours a day is enough to get 

 any horse fit to hunt ; more than this bores them 

 and your men, and, in my opinion, does no good. 

 Exercising along a road is uninteresting work, and 

 after a time becomes pure drudgery, wdiich is 



