THE HUNTER. 105 



CHAPTER VI. 

 THE HUNTER. 



THAT the thoroughbred is the foundation of nearly all our 

 half-bred stock, is simply a truism. The blood horse makes 

 the best sire for our hunters, hacks, chargers, troop horses, 

 and for those harness horses which are bred from Hackneys, 

 Cleveland Bays, or Yorkshire Coach Horses ; though in the 

 case of the last-named type, the thoroughbred may claim an 

 additional amount of credit, since he has been called in to add 

 quality to the Cleveland Bay. With these breeds, however, 

 we are not now immediately concerned, and so may confine 

 our attention for the present to the hunter. 



For hunting purposes, no horse equals the thoroughbred, 

 provided only that the rider does not too heavily tax the 

 mechanism of the weighing machine. So long as the hand 

 does not pass n stone ylbs. on the dial which means that 

 the extra weight of saddle and hunting clothes will not bring 

 the total to more than 13 stone no man need despair of riding 

 a blood horse in the hunting field ; and when he has once 

 ridden him, he will never want to go back again to any half- 

 bred horse. The longing to keep to the pur sang will prompt 

 him to mortify the flesh, if needs be, in order to keep down his 

 weight ; for when a man has once experienced the easy, elastic 

 gallop of the thoroughbred, he will not readily adapt himself 

 to the more laboured action of the half-bred. 



It is sometimes said that the thoroughbred cannot jump so 

 well as his relative of commoner lineage, and that he takes 



