HOW TO BUY AND SELL. 75 



their breed. The thorough-bred horse may oe taught to 

 lift his leg as high and bend his knee as well as any 

 other, even after he has been trained for racing; and he 

 then is better than the old-fashioned saddle horse, be- 

 cause safer and easier, and his breed renders him capable 

 of doing more work. 



HUNTERS. 



After reading the above remarks upon saddle horses, 

 you may naturally ask, How is it, then, that we have good 

 hunters now in some portions of the country? It is 

 because known hunters are seldom offered for sale in a 

 pursy state; or, if they are in such a condition at any 

 time, they undergo a thorough training before they are 

 set to work. The remark also applies to young horses 

 that are bought for the purpose of making hunters: it 

 would indeed be a raw hand that would take a fat hunter 

 into the field. 



Again, hunters are known, and exchange hands upon 

 their merits. Who ever refused the best horse in the hunt 

 because he had windgalls, enlarged hocks, or any of the 

 thousand and one objections made to other and unknown 

 horses? If the hunter is capable of performing cleverly 

 the various standard feats of the hunting-field, many an 

 imperfect piece of his symmetry is overlooked. 



" Besides," remarks some one, "broken knees in the 

 hunter are not of any consequence." From this I beg to 

 dissent. Of all the horses I should least like the hunter 

 to be a tumble-down, and for this good reason: the 

 shoulders of the tumble-down are upright, so that at par- 

 ticular leaps he can not extend his fore-legs sufficiently 

 to come down on his fore-feet, and most likely when he 

 thus over-jumps himself, he comes down head first. I 

 am confident there never was an instance of the 



