WEIGHT CAREYING. 95 



2. To carry from 14 to 20 St., a little less quality 

 must necessarily be put up with ; but still a great deal 

 of breeding there must be, or the horse can never live 

 the pace at which hounds go for any distance. 



I cannot, however, see the necessity for demanding 

 greater height. A horse standing 15 hands 2 in. is 

 high enough to carry any weight, supposing he be wide 

 enough. The fastest and best 16 st. and a-half hunter 

 of my experience was barely 15 hands 2 in. and a half, 

 but was very broad and muscular, and not very long. 

 In my opinion the heavier the man is, the greater the 

 breadth and the less length he should demand. 



One principle in the matter of weight-carrying is 

 quite clear, and that is, that the horse must first prove 

 by his action that he can carry his own weight, and then 

 there will be some chance of his carrying some con- 

 siderable addition to it. 



I have often seen horses bought at high prices as 

 hunters supposed to be up to great weight, but in 

 reality mere tall swill-bellied brutes, not even able to 

 carry their own weight correctly and evenly, much less 

 any addition to it ; in short, only fitted to lean the front 

 of their ponderous carcases against a collar. Such horses 

 always die away in about two miles. 



3. As I have demanded the hunter's standard for 

 flying countries to be over 15 hands and 1 in., so do I 

 demand that of the hunter intended for banks and hills 

 and walls to be under that height. 



For carrying from 12 to 14 st. over this description 

 of country, a full-blooded cob, varying from 14 hands 



