VAEIETIES OP THE HOKSE. 43 



the judges. In fact, the successful racer may be consi- 

 dered in the majority of cases as an embodied " fluke" 

 the rather as, in these days of objections and reversed 

 decisions, the words and meaning of the old song, to 

 the effect that " the horse that's first will win, sir," just 

 stop short of being a dead letter, and an absolute myth. 



THE LIGHT-WEIGHT HUNTER. 



THE light-weight hunter is either thoroughbred, or with 

 a slight stain in his pedigree ; and there are not wanting 

 many good judges who prefer the animal with a stain. 

 There are many arguments against thoroughbred horses as 

 hunters, but most of them are, when analysed, arguments 

 not against the horse himself, but against his past educa- 

 tion. A horse which has been in training generally has 

 some faults peculiar to animals who have passed through 

 that ordeal. He often pulls in his gallop, he frequently 

 kicks at other horses, and he is, as a rule, more or less 

 irritable in his temper. But these faults arise not from 

 his breeding, but from his training. Cocktails who have 

 been trained, especially for steeplechases, have often all 

 the above-mentioned faults of the more aristocratic horse 

 without his virtues ; the temper of the half-bred one who 

 has been severely trained is far more likely to be upset 

 for life than that of a thoroughbred; and, it may be 

 added, his constitution also, but that is not the present 

 question. A horse which has been trained as a two-year- 

 old always is a trouble to make a hunter of. The style of 

 galloping which has been encouraged in the training- 

 stable is not the best adapted for getting through plough, 

 or over ridge and furrow, and, from going habitually 



