COUNTING THE COST 279 



there frequently and unexpectedly at feeding 

 time. 



There is another little bit of advice I would 

 give the man who hunts, and who has not been 

 brought up to hunting from his boyhood. If he 

 has, the advice is superfluous. Let him learn to 

 clean a horse ; to strap him down thoroughly. 

 I have known more than one good hunter saved 

 from severe illness by the good strapping his 

 owner has given him to restore circulation, and I 

 have seen some gallant officers, whom it is the 

 fashion of the ignorant to sneer at as ' idle/ 

 dress their tired hunters in a way that would 

 have done credit to any groom and which few 

 grooms have equalled. And if a man is fairly 

 young and able, there is an immense satisfaction 

 in taking off his coat and cleaning the hunter that 

 has carried him well just to show his man how 

 it should be done. 



I am speaking from experience. I had been 

 very dissatisfied with the way my horses were 

 done and had found fault quietly once but with 

 very little effect. So one day when I came home 

 from hunting I put my coat off and set to work. 

 The man came in as I began, but I told him to 

 sit on the corn bin, and went on till I had finished. 

 I then said that that was how I would have my 

 horses done, and tha^t if they were not done up to 

 that standard and in the time it had taken me 

 to make my horse comfortable there was the 

 * route ' for him next morning. I said it 

 quietly, spoke about something else and left him. 



