144 THE HUNTING FIELD 



know how soon the pail may be withdrawn from his 

 head. 



Some horses are much more fretful and much more 

 easily excited than others, but as a general principle, 

 fretfulness is more the characteristic of young horses 

 than of old ones. Indeed, fretfulness is such a draw- 

 back to a hunter, that a horse that carries it beyond 

 years of discretion, say seven, is generally recom- 

 mended "to turn his attention to something else," 

 as they say in the Guards when they want to get rid 

 of a man. Young horses may readily be excused for 

 a little nervous irritability with so exciting a cause as 

 the chase, and it should be the duty of the Groom 

 to remove all causes as much as possible, and keep 

 things as near their usual course and appearance as 

 they can. For instance, in taking a young horse to 

 he out over night, instead of leaving him in the stable 

 when the others go to exercise, and then about the 

 middle of the day stripping him and rolling up his 

 things and fussing about the stable, putting all agog, 

 he should just lead him out when the others go to 

 exercise, sheeted and all, get his stable things quietly 

 up, and ride leisurely and easily away, without all the 

 fuss and elbow working that says to the horse as well 

 as to the whole world — " here we are away for the 

 Mountain daisy, to meet Squire Rattlecover's hounds 

 to-morrow." Because horses can't talk and hold 

 dialogues with their riders after the fashion of 

 Balaam's ass, some fellows fancy they have no more 

 instinct or memories than the saddles on which they 

 ride. Starting for cover in the morning, again, should 

 always be done as quietly and soberly as possible, 

 where a horse is at all subject to nervous irritation. 

 The sight of a scarlet coat in advance will set many 

 a horse off, that would otherwise have been got coolly 

 and comfortably to the meet. Some gentlemen have 

 a nasty trick of going out to breakfast on hunting 

 mornings and setting whole strings of horses on the 



