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CHAPTER XVII. 

 EXERCISE FOR CONDITIONING HUNTERS. 



Length of Preparation Physic Exercise Ground Leading Horses Riding 

 barebacked Nature of Exercise Clothing and Sweating Daily Distance to 

 be travelled. 



I TAKE hunters as typical saddle horses which are to be 

 brought into condition by good stable management and well 

 regulated exercise, and refrain from touching on training for 

 racing, except for the sake of comparison ; because it would 

 involve the question of horsemanship, which is a subject 

 outside the province of this book. The exercise necessary to 

 get harness horses into working condition, needs no special 

 description ; because, except in the case of match trotters, 

 which need as careful training as racehorses, the powers of 

 these animals are seldom tested so highly as to require a 

 regular preparation. Besides, the urgency of their work is 

 far less than that of horses which follow the hounds. 



If a man keeps his hunters during the slack season in exer- 

 cise, either by hacking or at light trap work, and takes them 

 out cubbing during October, he will seldom need to give them 

 any special preparation before appearing at Kirby Gate on 

 the first Monday of November, or at some less aristocratic 

 opening meet. The majority of hunting men are, however, 

 birds of passage that take their sport like their dinner, 

 without having to prepare it. I shall therefore confine myself 

 in this chapter to remarks which may be useful to stud 

 grooms, or to owners who are their own masters of horse. 



