60 The Horse Industry in New York State 



drudgery; yet 1 believe that a large number of well-bred horses, 

 providing, mind you, they are not punished at their jumps by 

 severe hands or spurs, really enjoy the sport. It also goes with- 

 out saying that there must be a great difference between a horse 

 that has his heart in the sport and goes at it like a schoolboy from 

 his books, and one that has only a poor gizzard for the work. 



NECK AND CAEKIAGE OF HEAD 



Horses with short, thick necks do not make good hunters. I 

 do not know of any exception to this rule. They are not easily 

 brought to hand ; they invariably rein badly, and are apt to have 

 hard, unyielding mouths. Avoid also a horse that carries a high 

 head. This is another rule withovit an exception. The head of a 

 hunter is quite high enough when his eyes are on a line with 

 the height of his withers. This low carriage of a hunter's head 

 is very important, and for several reasons: (1) It enables the 

 rider to lean well forward as his mount begins to spring at a 

 jump and still have room for the horse to throw up his head with 

 freedom in the natural act of jumping, without hitting the rider 

 in the face. (2) High-headed horses must be ridden with a 

 shorter rein than horses with their necks straight. This is an 

 objectionable feature, because the longer the rein the better and 

 easier the control. (3) When a high-headed horse is ridden at a 

 jump, especially if he pulls and his head comes higher than its 

 natural carriage, the animal is in a most awkward position to 

 take his fence. He does so at the expense of an unnecessary 

 amount of exertion, while the rider's control of his mount is gone. 



Horses with very slim necks generally bend them too easily. 

 Nothing is more annoying than a horse that turns only his head 

 in ans^\'er to a pull on the reins while his body goes straight on. 



T ha\'e dwelt upon this point because it is one seldom, if ever, 

 mentioned by writers, and because we hear so much nowadays 

 about having ^' plenty of horse in front of you." So there should 

 be ; but look well to the substance of a hunter's neck. " There is 

 ain thing aboot a hunter a canna forgie," said a keen hunting 

 friend of mine in Scotland, '' and that is a neck with na strach 

 in it ! " The neck can hardly be too long unless too thin ; it can 

 hardly be too low unless too short and thick, and of two evils 



