THE HUNTER.] 



MODERN YETEHINARY PRACTICE. 



[the nUNTEE. 



The pages of the Sporting 3Iagazine con- 

 tained, some years back, a controversy on the 

 merits of summering the hunter. Two cele- 

 brated writers were engaged in it ; one under 

 the signature of Nimrod, who recommended 

 summering the hunter in the stable ; the oppo- 

 nent to this measure was the veteran John 

 Lawrence, who advocated the summering of 

 the hunter in the field as the best means 

 of renovating him, and restoring him to his 

 pristine vigour. This controversy was carried 

 on in no very measured or complimentary 

 terms. 



The practice, however, of turning out the 

 hunter seems to us so natural as well as 

 beneficial to the animal, that we feel surprised 

 that a dispute upon such a question could 

 have arisen. The following remarks upon this 

 subject seem so judicious, that we cannot with- 

 hold them from our readers. They proceed 

 from the same writer on the Horse, to whom 

 we have before alluded. 



"Fashion, which now governs everything, 

 and now and then cruelly and absurdly, has 

 exercised her tyranny over this poor quadruped. 

 His field, where he could wander and gambol 

 as he liked, is changed to a loose box ; and the 

 liberty in which he so evidently exulted, to an 

 hour's walking exercise daily. He is allowed 

 vetches, or grass occasionally ; but from his 

 box he stirs not, except for his dull morning's 

 round, until he is taken into training for the 

 next winter's business. 



" In this, however, as in most other things, 

 there is a medium. There are few horses who 

 have not materially suffered in their legs and 

 feet, before the close of the hunting season. 

 There is nothing so refreshing to their feet as 

 the damp coolness of the grass into which they 

 are turned in May ; and nothing so calculated 

 to remove every enlargement and sprain, as the 

 gentle exercise which the animal voluntarily 

 takes while his legs are exposed to the cooling 

 process of evaporation, which is taking place 

 from the herbage he treads. The experience 

 of ages has shown that it is superior to all the 

 embrocations and bandages of the most skilful 

 veterinarian. It is the renovating process of 

 nature, where the art of man fails. 



"The spring grass is. the best physic that 

 can possibly be administered to the horse. 

 To a degree, which no artificial aperient or 



diuretic can attain, it carries olT every humour 

 which may be lurking about the animal; it 

 fines down the roundness of the legs; and, 

 except there be some bony cularfement 

 restores them almost to their original form 

 and strength. "When, however, the summer 

 has thoroughly set in, the grass ceases to bo 

 succulent, aperient, or medicinal ; the ground 

 is no longer cool and moist, at least during tlio 

 day ; and a host of tormentors, in the shape of 

 flies, are, from sunrise to sunset, persecuting 

 the poor animal. Running and stamping to 

 rid himself of his plagues, his feet are battered 

 by the hard ground, and he newly, and perhaps 

 more severely, injures his legs. Kept in a 

 constant state of irritation and fever, he rapidly 

 loses his condition, and sometimes comes up to 

 August little better than a skeleton. 



"Let the horse be turned out as soon .13 

 possible after the hunting seasoii is over. Let 

 him have the whole of May, and the greater 

 part, or possibly the whole of June ; but when 

 the grass fails, and the ground gets hard, and 

 the flies torment, let him be taken up. Ail 

 the benefits of turning out, and that which a 

 loose box and artificial physic can never give, 

 will have been obtained, without the incon- 

 venience and injury which attend an injudi- 

 ciously protracted run at grass, and which, 

 arguing against the use ot a thing from tho 

 abuse of it, have been improperly urged against 

 turning out at all." 



Stable-summering the hunter is favourably 

 considered by Count Veltherin. "I hope," he 

 says, "I may be permitted to adduce some- 

 thing from my own experience, having, for 

 nearly thirty years, constantly had at my 

 country seat from seventy to eighty horses — 

 partly saddle, partly coach, draught, and breed- 

 ing horses and colts ; and that, from preililec- 

 tion to horses, I have always bestowed ])ar- 

 ticular attention upon them. For a long thne 

 it has not been customary, on well-managed 

 estates in this part of the country, to turn 

 horses to grass in summer, or to give them 

 green food in the stable, with the exception of 

 brood mares and their foals." 



Mr. Appleby, in his Letters on Condition, 

 thus states his method of summering the 

 hunter: — "The first step I should take would 

 be to put the horse into a loose box, if con- 

 venient, and, by degrees, diminish his corn, 



91 



