HOW TO TREAT A HUNTER IN THE FIELD. 77 



sacral, 5), averaging less than two inches in length and 

 breadth. 



The wearying effects which the infliction of weight 

 produces on the muscular powers of a horse may be 

 practically demonstrated as follows : 



In crossing a particular region in the plains of South 

 America, in which there are literally no inhabitants to 

 assist in catching the horses, it is necessary for the 

 attendant on the traveller to select and drive a troop 

 of them, which continue to gallop before him in high 

 spirits, while the animal beneath him, unaccustomed to 

 extra weight, becomes weaker and fainter, until with 

 bleeding sides, drooping head, and panting flanks, he 

 is left standing by himself on the plain completely 

 exhausted. 



No less than five times is the traveller obliged to repeat 

 the operation of remounting what is called, what is con- 

 sidered, and what really is " a fresh horse," which in 

 his turn, solely by his rider's weight, becomes tired, 

 without metaphor, almost " to death," in the presence of 

 the unmounted horses, who, with nothing to carry but 

 their own carcases, are still showing no signs whatever 

 of distress.* 



Now although a horse highly fed and in good wind 



* The ancient Greeks practised riding two or three horses tied together : 

 the horseman vaulting from the tired to the fresh one. 



