HORSES AND STABLES 265 



Again, if the pasture becomes baked and hard and the 

 grass dried up, horses should be taken elsewhere, for 

 they will not thrive unless they have plenty of food. 

 Late-summer pasturing of hunters is a great mistake ; 

 firstly, because all, or nearly all, the good has gone 

 out of the grasses ; and secondly, because horses 

 which are to be used at the beginning of the season 

 should be put into work not later than towards the end 

 of July. 



Some horses become very fat during six or eight 

 weeks of grass food, but although they acquire fat, 

 they do not lose their muscle in so short a period of 

 time, and the fat gradually disappears when the horse 

 is put into regular work. As a rule, however, nine 

 hunters out of ten do very little work until they are 

 taken out cub-hunting, for it is not every groom who is 

 conscientious enough to give his charges long spells of 

 trotting and walking under an August sun. This 

 question of work is one which is very difficult to 

 manage, because so many hunting men are from home 

 in August and September, and so much must therefore 

 be left to grooms. Where it is possible the hunting 

 man who looks after everything himself should have a 

 horse out every morning at this time of year, and 

 should indeed be in the saddle not later than seven 

 o'clock. An early-morning ride in late summer or 

 early autumn is only to be tried to be appreciated, and 

 the man who has a horse or two fairly fit to go by the 

 beginning of October has a great pull over the man 

 whose horses have been a month later in beginning 

 their work. 



Horses which are of excitable temperament should 

 not be turned out at all, for they are quite likely to 

 injure themselves. Veterans are always better for a 



