THE HUNTER AT HOME. 167 



For cuts and wounds to which horses specially in wall 

 countries are exposed, nothing is better than a little 

 Friars^ balsam and a good deal of patience. Bad feeders 

 have no business in a small stud ; if one finds his way 

 there, the best plan is to leave him quiet in his box, and 

 never disturb or approach him more than can be helped. 

 Many horses who feed badly during the day will eat up 

 at night any amount, in reason, that is given to them. 

 Bad feeders are generally excitable, nervous animals — 

 not at all the style of steed suitable for a man who wants 

 to see a maximum of sport at a minimum of expenditure. 

 I have had very few bad feeders myself; indeed, that is 

 a quality I always avoid in buying as much as possible, 

 as I never have found a way of mitigating the evil. 

 Leaving them quiet is about the only thing that can be 

 done for them if they are nervous ones, also feeding them 

 always at regular intervals. " Nimrod,^^ in his " Con- 

 dition of Hunters,^^ speaks of giving a bad feeder a 

 teaspoonful of cayenne pepper; but this could hardly 

 be administered every day, and some horses will be off 

 their feed for a week after a hard day. Of course, it is 

 a mere waste of breath for a buyer to ask whether the 

 horse he is looking at feeds well, but a pretty good guess 

 may be made by the look of the animal. Washy ones 

 generally show their quality more or less in their appear- 

 ance, unless they are tremendously "made up^^ for sale. 

 Let us next consider the feet. About the worst thing 

 that can befall a hunter is an attack of fever in the feet. 

 A horse who is fit to go " ought^^ not to be subject to 

 such a chance ; but a great many hunters are ridden hard 

 to hounds when they are anything but fit. My own 

 experience of this very unpleasant malady is limited to 

 two cases ; and here is their history. One resulted from 



