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CHAPTER XX. 



HUNTERS. 



The Hunter — Poetical Description — The Five Essentials in Prose — Height of According to Country— Extraordinarily Small 

 Horses — Exceptions — "The Unknown" — Analysis of Size of Hunters at Islington Show — Height of Horse partly Depends 

 on Height of Rider— The Points of a Hunter of any Size — Hunter's Action — Bad Shoulders Dangerous— Welter Weights 

 — Their Preference for Five-Year-Olds — Celebrated Old Horses — Iris — Rainbow — Faults of Old Hunters — A Hunter 

 should Jump in Cold Blood — Hunters Trained by Farmers the Best — Curious Habits — Anecdote of Irish Hunter — The 

 Sort for a Big Country— For a Closely- Enclosed Country — Advantage of a Horse Leading Well — Charles Buxton on 

 Choosing Hunters — A Master of Fox-hounds' Plan — To Job or to Buy — By Auction — Hack Hunters of Oxford- -Cam- 

 bridge — Cheltenham — Windsor — To Turn a Hack into a Hunter — Walking Lessons, 



" A HEAD like a snake, and a skin like a mouse, 

 An eye like a woman, bright, gentle, and brown, 

 With loins and a back that would carry a house. 

 And quarters to lift him smack over a town. 



" When the country is deepest, I give you my word, 

 'Tis a pride and a pleasure to put him along ; 

 O'er fallow and pasture he sweeps like a bird. 



And there's nothing too wide, nor too high, nor too strong. 



" Last Monday we ran for an hour in the Vale ; 

 . Not a bullfinch was trimmed, of a gap not a sign ; 

 All the ditches were double, each fence had a rail ; 

 And the farmers locked every gate in the line. 



" I'd a lead of them all when we came to the brook, 

 A big one — a bumper — and up to your chin ; 

 As he threw it behind him, I turned for a look ; 

 There were eight of us had it, and seven got in ! " * 



The essentials of a hunter of any size may be very shortly stated without any veterinary 

 technicalities. 



1. The hunter must have at least one good eye, for a hunter must see his way. 



2. He must have lungs good enough to gallop without distress. There are horses that 

 roar, to the great annoyance of every one within hearing, without any apparent effect on their 

 speed or endurance. It certainly requires great courage in a gentleman to ride such nuisances. 



3. He must have a back equal to the weight he has to carry ; quarters, hocks, and thighs 



* P'rom "The Clipper that Stands at the Top of the Stall," dedicated to Colonel the Hon. Clurles White, M.P-, by Major 

 J. Whyte Melville. 



