VARIETIES OF THE HOUSE. 47 



price. The choice of a weight-carrier is a matter re- 

 quiring more judgment than the uninitiated would think. 

 Beginners are apt to confound size with strength. They 

 are two very different things. Indeed an overgrown 

 animal has himself to carry ; and when to that load is 

 added a heavy rider, the total becomes considerable. 

 Compactness is the first quality to be looked for by a 

 sportsman who, riding sixteen stone or more, still is 

 determined to see sport. Long backs and long legs are 

 unpardonable deformities. A well-set-on head and light 

 mouth are desirable, but the want of these may be ex- 

 cused if the horse be good in other respects, and the 

 rider really heavy. A muscular neck generally accom- 

 panies muscular development elsewhere, and so is to be 

 desired ; but it must be light at the throat, and not too 

 loaded on the crest. The best of shoulders, it is needless 

 to say, are indispensable; no horse can do the trick 

 across country without them. They must not only be 

 oblique, but long, and to carry weight rather thick, 

 though with a tolerably broad chest. Broad-chested 

 horses are supposed generally to be slow, but narrow- 

 chested ones are very apt to speedy-cut and hit them- 

 selves, under weight. Round the girth a heavy-weight 

 hunter should measure as much over 6ft. as possible. 

 Light-girthed ones with staying powers are the exception. 

 No hollow-backed horse will ever do any good with a 

 real welter weight. The back must be short, the loins 

 strong, and the hips wide, and as ragged as you like. A 

 tendency in the direction of what is elegantly termed the 

 " goose rump " is no disadvantage, rather the contrary. 

 The deeper the ribs are, the more valuable the horse. 

 For muscular thighs and hocks well under him, the merest 

 tyro can see the necessity ; also for arms to match, and big 



