294 THE HUNTING FIELD 



they were trying how soon they could wear the 

 horse's legs out). "I pray them to consider," 

 continues our author, "that horses do not die of 

 old age, but are killed because they are crippled ; 

 and that he who cripples them is the cause of their 

 death, not he who pulls the trigger. The practice 

 is as unhorsemanlike as it is inhuman. It is true 

 that money will replace the poor slaves as you use 

 them up, and if the occasion requires it, they must, 

 alas ! be used up ; but, in my opinion, nothing but 

 a case of life and death can justify the deed. If the 

 ground be hard and even, a collected canter may be 

 allowed, but if hard and uneven, a moderate trot at 

 most. One hour's gallop on such ground would do 

 the soundest horse irremediable mischief. Those 

 who boast of having gone such a distance in such 

 a time, on the ground supposed, show ignorance or 

 inhumanity. Such facts require cruelty only, not 

 courage. Nay, they are performed most commonly 

 by the very persons who are too cowardly or too 

 unskilful to dare to trust their horse with his foot on 

 the elastic turf, or to stand with him the chances of 

 the hunting field; and such is the inconsistency of 

 human nature, that they are performed by persons 

 who would shudder at the bleeding flank of the 

 race-horse ! or who would lay down with disgust and 

 some expression of maudlin, morbid humanity, the 

 truly interesting narrative of that most intrepid and 

 enduring of all gallopers, Sir Francis Head. But 

 compare the cases. In the case of the race-horse, 

 he has his skin wounded to urge him to a two or at 

 most a five minutes' exertion, from which in ten 

 minutes he is perfectly recovered and ready, nay 

 eager to start again. In the case of the wild horse 

 of the Pampas, he is urged for two, three, or perhaps 

 five hours to the utmost distress for wind, as well as 

 muscular fatigue ; he is enlarged, and in three or four 

 days he is precisely the same as if he had never been 



