148 UNASKED ADVICE. 



exactly lame with tLem. Curbs are a bore ; they often 

 are not allowed to stop a horse's work^ though they cer- 

 tainly ought to do so. Spavins are wonderfully common 

 among hunters — in fact^ almost the certain accompani- 

 ments of a particularly shaped hock ; but horses will hunt 

 for a lifetime with them^ especially when they have been 

 firedj coming out always stiff, and invariably working 

 sounds as I have already remarked. String-halt is 

 ugly^ but there the evil ends^ except in those excep- 

 tionally bad cases where the horse cannot start at once. 

 I had last season two hunters affected with it ; it was par- 

 ticularly apparent when they " turned over '^ in a stall ; 

 and for the first forty or fifty yards on leaving the stable 

 in the morning it was noticeable^ but on no other occa- 

 sion. A vet. could not have passed these animals^ but 

 they hunted and hacked none the worse for their afiec- 

 tion. It has been stated that horses with string-halt are 

 the safest on the road. I am not sure that a friend of 

 mine was far wrong who used to remark, " Sound horses 

 be hanged ! You never know where they may ' go -/ 

 they are a constant anxiety. Now I know the worst of 

 my corns, curbs, and spavins, and it's hard lines if each 

 nag is not contented with one example of screwiness !" 



I don't, however, go so far as to recommend the 

 purchase of notoriously unsound horses, though asserting 

 that, ten thousand to one, the soundest of animals 

 will, if you only work him enough and keep him long 

 enough, become eventually a screw in your hands, and 

 probably on your hands too, if you want to get back any- 

 thing like his cost price. 



Young sportsmen like to buy a young, fresh horse, and 

 to exhibit him as a fresh importation at the covert side ; 

 they dislike the second-hand sort of notion conveyed by 



