54 THE COMPLETE HORSEMAN 



The result was anything but satisfactory. 

 The constant physicking and sweating to get 

 rid of what should never have been there made 

 horses stale almost before the season was well 

 begun and the season was nearly over before 

 they were really at their best. And then as 

 soon as they were fit they were turned out to 

 grass again, for the whole process of losing con- 

 dition to be repeated. Notv^dthstanding that 

 Nimrod and Harry Hieover wrote strongly against 

 turning hunters out to grass and that many of 

 the leading hunting men in the best countries 

 summered their horses in the house, the practice 

 of turning out to grass has died hard and it is 

 still to be found in many places. The argu- 

 ments for and against it have been discussed 

 time without number and it is not necessary 

 to go over the same ground again, but it may 

 be pointed out that, with the exception of the 

 racehorse there is no animal which lives such 

 an artificial life as the hunter, and that the 

 sudden changes of the English climate cannot 

 but affect injuriously a horse that is, or should 

 be, kept always in an equable temperature. 

 The argument that it is cheaper to summer 

 horses at grass falls to the ground at once if 

 efficiency is taken into consideration. 



If the stud has to be replenished the proper 

 time to do so is at the end of the season. At 

 that time there are always a lot of good horses 

 in the market and there is always a better choice 

 than there is later in the year when every one 



