Age of Hunters. 425 



The hunter's actions must not, like many a fashionable town hack's, be knee action ; it must 

 be shoulder action — "without correct shoulder action the best hind-leg action will be useless- 

 because it is the business of the shoulders in leaping to throw the weight back to the hind 

 limbs." It will be observed that Lord Coventry, in his letter to me (page 92), attributes 

 Emblem's extraordinary quickness in jumping to her excellent shoulders. This is what is 

 meant when a hunter is said to bend himself, " which he could not do without breaking his 

 back in two pieces if he had bad shoulders." 



A hunter with bad shoulders (there are plenty for sale) will lean against instead of 

 rising at his fences ; in country phrase, he will " pitch " at his jumps. If he is gay and 

 good-looking, ridden by a lively young farmer's or dealer's clever boy, he may go scrambling 

 along in countries where timber-jumping is never attempted, until, falling into the hands of 

 some victim, he will tumble headlong over a stile in the middle of a run, and certainly fall 

 at any heavy down jump. 



A hunter, like all other horses except race-horses, is considered to be in his prime at 

 six years old, and so he is for selling purposes, if he has previously been in the hands of 

 a man who has thoroughly taught him his business. The welter weights who do ride hard 

 in flying countries often choose a " a raw five-year-old," preferring the courage of youth to 

 the cautiousness of age. On the other hand, there are hunters whose reputation is maintained 

 in the market through a full decade, as, for instance. Captain Anstruther Thomson's Iris, 

 on which he is painted by Sir Francis Grant in the presentation picture of the Pytchlcy 

 Hunt ; and Rainbow, which shared with other horses in the honours of the famous Waterloo 

 Run. Iris was sold for 500 guineas, and Rainbow at little less when over ten years old. 



I saw at Cheltenham, in 1851, a white Irish hunter that went in the first flight over the 

 stone-wall country, and was said to be twenty years old. His teeth, long and curved, showed 

 a great age. Hunting farmers, with horses to sell, ride them pretty hard at four years old. 

 The Duke of Rutland was well carried one season by a horse which was purchased as a 

 four-year-old ; it turned out to be three, and was spoiled. A very straight-riding farmer 

 declared that he was never better carried than by a thorough-bred three-year-old, and he rode 

 thirteen stone some pounds ; but having put this filly by, expecting her to grow up a wonder, 

 she was never worth a farthing afterwards. 



The fault of old hunters is that they are too clever. They calculate distances too 

 accurately. My advice to beginners is to purchase finished hunters, which are chiefly to 

 be found without mark of mouth, because of the two performers one ought to have ex- 

 perience. If the eyesight be good, the lungs sound, and the legs in good galloping con- 

 dition, age is no consequence, neither are the blemishes of bangs, blows, and thorns. 



There is a great difference in the performance of even clever hunters. Some are foaled 

 natural jumpers, and seem to know how to take off and how to land the very first time 

 they are shown a fence ; they appear to enjoy the sport. These when well bred are treasures. 

 Other hunters, and not the worst, leap with such a " spang " that even good horsemen, if not 

 forewarned, have been dismounted at the first fence. Others have the unpleasant trick of 

 pausing and then bucking over, giving the rider a horrid jar. For these reasons it is well 

 worth the while of young sportsmen to pay handsomely for a trial in the field, where sometimes, 

 the temperate are hot and the hot temperate. A friend of mine purchased a big, well-bred 

 horse, after seeing him leap every kind of fence in cold blood in the finest form ; but this horse 

 although by no means hard-mouthed, was so excited in the field that he was only fit to 

 ride a straight run with stag-hounds. Such instances are common. At the same time, it 

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