THOUGHTS ON HUNTERS 



and quiet to handle. Easy and steady to mount ; 

 free from nervousness; calm under excitement, 

 yet keen to go, are, amongst other requisite 

 attributes to which a hunter should respond. 

 Cleverness is, to a large extent, dependent upon 

 experience, associated with that of a good school- 

 master, and, given these conditions, plus that 

 of parental inheritance (hunting abilities), one is 

 bound to have a hunter of the highest standard 

 of excellence. The skin covering the head, neck, 

 body, and limbs, should be thin, and clothed 

 with fine hair, as a thin skin and freedom from 

 coarse hair are usually associated with good 

 breeding. Those hunters that are of a sluggish 

 or lymphatic temperament, have usually thick 

 skins, and a good deal of packing or subcu- 

 taneous tissue beneath it, the presence of which 

 favours swelling of the limbs, grease, and other 

 troubles. The thinner the skin, the closer to 

 bone, muscle, tendon, and ligament, and this 

 alone gives a sharper anatomical configuration. 

 It may seem rather ludicrous to compare the 

 finely chiselled head of the Arabian with that 

 of a light van horse, nevertheless, it serves to 

 illustrate " breed qualities," there being portrayed 



3 



