RIDING ON EXMOOR. 349 



see plenty of first-class light-weight horses, but a 

 high-class heavy-weight horse is rare, and cannot be 

 expected from the dealers who let out for hire. No 

 dealer could afford to give the price for a really 

 first-rate fifteen stone horse and let him out at two 

 guineas a day. 



What really good big horses can do was shown by 

 men like the late Mr. Granville Somerset, and, above 

 all, Mr. Bissett, who could gallop when required over 

 the moor against any man, in spite of his weight of 

 twenty stone, but he gave immense prices for his 

 horses. Mr. Froude Hancock, who is bad to beat, 

 however fast hounds run, is an example of what 

 comparatively small horses, chosen with consummate 

 judgment and in the very pink of condition, are 

 capable of under a welter-weight when ridden with 

 judgment and knowledge. When all is said and 

 done, the only indispensable quality is " blood " ; 

 the better it is and the more of it the better. 



Many a good performer both on the flat and 

 across country has proved itself a safe and pleasant 

 mount with the staghounds. That well-known 

 sprinter. Little Red Rat, is as much at home on 

 the wet ground on the North Forest as on Newmarket 

 iHeath, and shows himself as capable of skating and 

 sliding down a rocky path, with a river at the bottom, 

 as he is of standing like a rock on the Limekilns to 

 allow his owner to watch an important trial of 

 two-year-olds. 



Next to blood the most essential thing is condition. 



