186 UNASKED ADVICE. 



required it fifty years ago_, it gives a wonderful cliance to 

 horses who have been badly summered. Of course no 

 sensible man would turn a hunter to grass in the summer 

 if he meant to hunt him the following- season ; but if by 

 misfortune,, one gets hold of a horse that has been so 

 treated^ clipping or singeing affords the only chance that 

 there is of getting him anything like fit to hunt before 

 Christmas — in a fast country at any rate. 



In speaking of aged horses as being more calculated 

 to do work than others^ I of course allude to sound ones, 

 or to those who may be unsound in some way that will 

 not interfere with the particular work for which they are 

 intended. It should be remembered by young buyers 

 that a horse who is sound at eight years old will, with 

 luck, be sound for another six or eight years, he having 

 been a really sound horse to begin with. But a four or 

 five year old is like the proverbial young bear, with all 

 his troubles before him ; and where his soft place may be 

 can only be discovered by experience. A model of 

 soundness at four may be a heap of infirmity at seven 

 years old. 



