IO6 LIGHT HORSES I BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



longer to school ; but both these statements may be dismissed 

 with the remark that they are inaccurate. So long as a tho- 

 roughbred horse can be schooled to jump the Liverpool course, 

 the hunting man may comfort himself that, if his own heart be 

 in the right place, he never need be pounded in any county in 

 England. At the several Newmarket sales, and also at Don- 

 caster, yearlings are sold at prices varying from 15 guineas to 

 30 guineas, and in the opinion of the writer it would be well 

 worth the while of any light weight to purchase some of these, 

 to turn them out, and " forget all about them " for a couple of 

 years. About three pounds of oats per day and they need 

 not be of the very finest quality would go far towards build- 

 ing up their frames and fitting them for the duties of the 

 hunting field ; a slow racehorse is a very fast hunter. 



The time is probably very far distant, when men will breed 

 thoroughbreds to hunt ; but there does not seem to be any 

 reason why if any one chose to try the experiment thorough- 

 breds up to weight, should not be reared. One sometimes 

 sees both thoroughbred horses and mares with great bone, and 

 for hunting purposes, to carry weight, it would be useless 

 to think of breeding from anything which had not substance. 

 There are generally some hunter sires going about having 

 quite sufficient bone, but there might be a difficulty about 

 getting the proper type of mare ; though, judging from the 

 prices realised for unfashionably bred ones, the difficulty need 

 not be an insurmountable one, and after one or two mares had 

 been bought, the fillies they might throw could, of course, be 

 utilised at the stud, if they proved suitable. Considering the 

 pleasure to be derived from riding a blood hunter, and 

 remembering that one able to carry 14 or 15 stone would 

 always realise a large price, it is perhaps rather astonishing 

 that so very few people have tried the experiment of breeding 

 the blood hunter. It may be objected that to do so would be 

 embarking in a profitless speculation, inasmuch as more money 

 would be given for a yearling to race than for hunting. True ; 

 but this only holds good in the case of those with more or less 



