HORSES AND STABLES 249 



would not go a yard for him was in the van all day, 

 and fairly *' brought down the house" by a marvellous 

 exhibition of gate jumping. 



The average hunting man or woman must be content, 

 then, to take his or her proper place in the field, and to 

 buy horses which are suited to his or her capacity. It 

 is hardly within our province to inflict a horse-dealing 

 lecture on our readers, nor have we the space for any- 

 thing like a full review of this absorbing question, but 

 a few general hints may not be out of place, and, firstly, 

 it cannot be too strongly impressed upon those who 

 hunt that breeding is the greatest essential in a hunter. 

 The better bred a horse is the better hunter he is likely 

 to be, and any horse which is very short of breeding 

 should be avoided at all costs. And when we write of 

 breeding we refer solely and entirely to the blood (more 

 or less of which is to be found in almost every light 

 horse) which comes from the thoroughbred. The 

 thoroughbred is the original source of the modern 

 hunter, and though horses which are of absolutely 

 pure blood — entered in the General Stud Book — are 

 few and far between in the hunting field, a huge 

 majority of the present-day hunters, including all the 

 best of them, have a considerable amount of pure blood 

 in their veins. A common-bred horse may, on the 

 other hand, be both good-looking and clever, and yet 

 by no means a good hunter. His good looks may find 

 him a purchaser at a fair price, and in some hands he 

 may get through his work with credit. But this is 

 dependent upon two things, either that his owner has 

 found out all his weak points, or that he is bought by 

 some one who does not care to go fast, but who just 

 potters on well behind the crowd when hounds are 

 running. 



