THE HUNTER 71 



others refuse, and yet be willing to wait his turn 

 quietly in a narrow place. He can scarcely be called 

 a real lady's horse unless he will walk through a gap, 

 for although some otherwise excellent hunters will, 

 if well-bred, display occasional excusable impatience, 

 nothing is so trying for all concerned as a horse 

 who starts rearing and plunging whenever restrained. 

 If such a horse is otherwise a good beast, he should 

 only be hunted on "bye" days, when the fields are 

 small and his patience will not be put to the test so 

 frequently. 



The really good hunter must enjoy hunting — it is, 

 after all, a "partnership game," in which he must be 

 willing to bear his share of fun and hardship. Some 

 people claim that no horses like hunting, but I am 

 quite sure that they are wrong. Any one who has 

 ever seen the transformation worked by the sight of 

 hounds in an otherwise sleepy horse, or has witnessed 

 the squeals of delight that some horses indulge in at 

 the meet, will be speedily converted. I have had 

 hunters who never paid the slightest attention to any- 

 thing that the other horses in the field were doing, 

 but would keep their eyes riveted on hounds till the 

 latter "found," when they would tremble with eager- 

 ness to be off. As for the love of jumping, there are 

 countless young horses who will do it for the pure 

 love of the thing, and who cannot be kept in a pad- 

 dock except by very large fences. I have a little filly, 

 out of a favorite old hunter of mine, who, when ten 

 days old, left her mother's side and jumped over a 

 little three-foot picket fence, and when slightly over 

 a month old gaily attempted nearly four feet two ! 

 On the whole, unless a horse has been soured he is 

 keen to jump and to hunt. 



