178 "THE HIGH-METTLED RACER'S A HACK," ETC. ETC. 



for after pitching little master over his head, he was 

 sold to a travelling tinker: it was then with my 

 racer Jack, as it often is with many another crack 

 " Bellows to mend." 



Let us now return to the Cup-horse I said I should 

 be inclined to purchase as a hunter. Having made 

 no figure as a two, or three, or four years old among 

 first-rate horses, nor at five having done enough to 

 warrant his being kept as a useful second-rater, no 

 doubt his master will be willing enough to do what he 

 ought to have done two years before, sell him for the 

 best price he could get. In this way a really fine 

 five-year-old horse may often be got at fifty pounds 

 less than he could have been bred for. But the pur- 

 chaser must not of course think he has bought a 

 hunter. He might as well suppose, because he had 

 bought the proper quantity of cloth, that he had got 

 a coat ; he must get the tailor : so for the horse, 

 we must get the horseman, with head, hands, and 

 heels, to make the hunter; upon these will the per- 

 fection of the coat and the hunter depend. I have 

 heard persons say that thorough-bred horses were 

 seldom good leapers : how in the name of common 

 sense should they be ? they have never been taught 

 to be so. They can, like all animals, jump if they 

 please in a wild way ; but to do it safely, coolly, and 

 scientifically, must be taught them. They can jump 

 well enough, high and wide enough for anything they 

 want in a state of nature : but to take all kinds of 

 artificial fences well is a perfection to be learnt. Of 

 course no race-horse knows anything about it: he has 

 been placed in situations where he never was per- 

 mitted to attempt to jump, nor as long as he con- 

 tinues a race-horse will he ever be. I dare say neither 

 Bee's-wing nor Catherina would take a common hurdle 



