The Hunter 65 



A hunter, to be comfortable, should not unduly spread the 

 legs of his rider bv being too wide through the heart. However, 

 the other extreme is equally bad, for there nnist be lung capacity; 

 and whatever a horse lacks in breadth through the heart he should 

 make up in depth ; the deeper the better. The round-backed and 

 rliiek-hearted horses so desirable in harness are not to be consid- 

 orod for a moment for saddle work, especially if they have, and 

 is usually the case, low withers. When you have had a saddle 

 turn with you once or twice, you will, like the writer, have learned 

 this lesson by heart. Broad-chested horses are very apt to roll in 

 their gait. 



SIZE 



For size, the question depends somewhat on the country to be 

 liunted. A rough country re(iuires a smaller or shorter-legged 

 horse than a country which is flat, ^ly own experience is that a 

 horse from tifteen-two-and-a-half to fifteen-three is invariably the 

 best in jumping and staying ([ualities. To a man on a horse of 

 sixteen hands the fences do not look so high, but this is of slight 

 advantage when other aspects of the problem are considered. 

 The truth is, there seems to be just about so much force or en- 

 durance in a horse, and this lessens as you spread it over more 

 than the natural size of the family to which the horse belongs. 

 Increased size invariably brings coarseness, putting the animal, 

 so to speak, out of balance with himself. 



DISPOSITIOlSr 



As to disposition, the best in the world is none too good. A 

 man may have ridden all sorts of horses and first-class jumpers, 

 but if he has never found a partner with intelligence enough to 

 enjoy the sport as well as he himself does, he has yet to enjoy one 

 of the principal delights of a day with hounds. Such horses are 

 not plentiful. When a man finds one, he will probably regret it 

 as long as he lives if he parts with him. Out of a hundred hunters 

 you can probably count the genuine sportsmen, the genuine hunt- 

 ers, on the fingers of one hand. Tn this respect the Irish hunters 

 outclass all others. They are like the people who breed them, 

 always ready for a lark, yet having the keenest instinct for self- 

 preservation. They are light-hearted to a degree, and nothing 

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