36 WEIGHT MADE LIGHT OF. 



be surprised at anything that took place on the trial 

 day ; for queer things do take place on such occasions 

 even among friends. I think I have at all events 

 shown there are those to be found not very particular 

 as to weight. 



I have mentioned the foregoing as one out of scores 

 of instances I have seen of how little the subject of 

 weight occupies the attention of many men who are 

 daily using horses even for sporting purposes. By 

 many it is not considered at all. Most of my hunting 

 friends must, I am sure, recall to their recollections how 

 often they have seen two men with hounds on a bit of 

 galloping ground racing at each other on horses of 

 equal pretensions, equal in size and strength, but carry- 

 ing perhaps the difference of 3st. in weight ; and if the 

 lighter weight keeps the lead, he goes home fully im- 

 pressed with the idea that he possesses the fastest 

 horse. I have even seen good sportsmen commit this 

 folly. It descends to the very butchers, who will have 

 a trot at each other, though the one be a boy of 8st., 

 the other a man of 12st. I suppose all these think, 

 like the dealer, that "it does not signify." 



Singular as may appear the assertion, it is never- 

 theless a correct one, that I have rarely met a regular 

 country gentleman, whose only pursuit (so far as his 

 horses are concerned) is hunting, who possessed the 

 niceties of judgment in horses. I rarely met such a 

 man even knowing whether a horse is sound or un- 

 sonnd : and again, as far as relates to condition, their 

 horses are seldom up to the mark and fit to go till 

 about January. During October they are seen scrap- 

 ing the lather from their horse with their whip, and 

 deluging their cambric or Bandana with the exuda- 

 tion from their own brows. Now, by country gen- 



