THE HUNTER. 53 



should if possible stand straight. If they turn a little outward there is no 

 serious objection ; but if they turn inward his action cannot be safe, 

 particularly when he is fatif^ucd or over-weighted. 



The body should be short and compact, compared with that of the race- 

 horse, that he may not in his gallop take too extended a stride. This 

 would be a serious disadvantage in a long day and with a heavy rider, 

 from the stress on the pasterns ; and more serious when going over 

 clayey poached groimd, during the winter months. The compact short- 

 strided horse will almost skim the surface, while the feet of the longer- 

 reached animal will sink deep, and he will wear himself out by efforts to 

 disengage himself. 



Every horseman knows how much more enduring is a short-bodied 

 horse in climbing hills, although perhaps not quite so much in descending 

 them. This is the secret of suiting the race-horse to his course; and 

 unfolds the apparent mystery of a decidedly superior horse on a flat and 

 straight course, being often beaten by a little horse, with far shorter stride 

 on uneven ground, and with several turnings. 



The loins should be broad ; — the quarters long ; — the thighs muscular ; 

 — the hocks well bent, and well under the horse. 



The reader needs not be told how essential temper and courage are. A 

 hot irritable brute is a perfect nuisance, and the coward that will scarcely 

 face the slightest fence exposes his owner to ridicule. 



The training of the race-horse has not been touched upon. It contains 

 too much mystery, and too much absurdity for common understandings. 

 The principle however of preparing both the race-horse and the hunter for 

 their work is the same, and can have no mystery about it; viz., by 

 physic and by exercise, to get rid of all superfluous fat and flesh, without 

 too much lowering the animal ; and, particularly to bring him by dint of 

 exercise into good wind, and accustom him to the full trial of his powers, 

 without over-straining or injuring him. Two or three doses of physic 

 as the season approaches, and these not too strong ; plenty of good hard 

 meat ; and a daily gallop of a couple of miles, and at a pace not too 

 quick, will be nearly all that can be required. Physic must not be 

 omitted ; but the three words air, exercise, food, contain the grand secret 

 and art of training. 



Some think that even the simple process now described is not necessary, 

 and that horses that are taken up and worked in the day, and with a feed 

 or two of corn, and turned out at night, with an open stable or shed to 

 run into if they please, are as active, healthy, and enduring, as those who 

 are most carefully trained, and confined to the stable during the hunting 

 season. Many a farmer has boasted, that he can beat the most numerous 

 and the best-appointed field, and that his horse never wants wind, and 

 rarely tires. 



It is true that the farmer may enjoy a good day's sport on the horse 

 that carries him to market, or possibly, occasionally performs more menial 

 drudgery ; but the frothy lather with which such a horse is covered in the 

 early part of the day evinces undeniable inferiority. There is, however, 

 one point on which the untrained horse has the advantage. Accustomed 

 to all weathers, he rarely sutlers, when, after a sharp burst, there comes a 

 sudden check, and the pampered and shivering stabled horse is exposed 

 with him for a considerable time to a piercing north-easter. The one cares 

 nothing about it; the other may carry home the seeds of dangerous 

 disease. 



