1 70 HUNTING 



Knightley, had in persuading his scarce less famous hunter, Sir 

 Marinel, even to look at a fence when first taken out of training. 

 Yet this horse, with Benvolio, also a thorough-bred one, were 

 far and away the best Sir Charles ever rode. 



Colonel Cook is as thorough an advocate for blood as 

 Whyte-Melville, but he rather shakes his head at the training 

 stable. ' Many fox hunters,' he says, ' prefer thorough-bred 

 horses, others cocktails ; I always gave the preference to the 

 former, if it was possible to get them. It is the general opinion 

 that thorough-bred horses cannot leap so well as cocktails : I 

 think otherwise ; and if you will try the experiment, by taking 

 ten young horses of the former and ten of the latter sort, I am 

 convinced you will find the thorough-bred ones to have the 

 advantage, and naturally to clear their fences with more ease 

 to themselves. Horses that have been in training for years 

 cannot be expected to make hunters ; but, nevertheless, what 

 superiority has a thorough-bred one in every respect above all, 

 in speed, bottom, and wind ! It often happens when a cocktail 

 is at the height of his speed, a thorough-bred is only at three- 

 quarters, and the latter will always go through dirt (as the term 

 is) best.' 



' The Druid ' l gives us the word of an old hunter breeder, 

 that he could never get exactly the animal his heart was set on, 

 till he put his short-legged cart mare to a thorough-bred horse, 2 

 and crossed her first filly foal (* laid up in lavender till she was 

 rising five ') with a thorough-bred. ' The Druid's ' own idea is 

 that the size should be on the side of the dam, and the breeding 

 on that of the sire ; ' a large roomy mare should be put to a 

 small compact blood horse ; ' and he calls Sir Harry Goodricke 

 (no mean authority) in evidence. Another friend of his, vaguely 

 described as * one of the finest horsemen and judges of the day,' 

 gave him this standard for a good hunter, as good a piece 



1 Observations on Fox Hunting. 



2 My own experience is that unless the mare is well bred the produce lacks 

 speed. I prefer both Sire and Dam to be well bred, but a well-bred mare and 

 an under-bred horse will produce a faster animal than a thorough-bred horse 

 and an under-bred mare. EDITOR. 



