392 EXERCISING HUNTERS. 



If hunters have been out of work for some months, they 

 will probably require at least August, September and October 

 for getting back their muscle and some of their wind. 



Before beginning work, it is generally advisable to give a 

 moderate dose of physic, in order to remove from the system 

 an excess of the poisonous material in broken-up tissue 

 which may not at first be excreted with sufficient rapidity 

 for the requirements of hard exercise, and to get rid of 

 superabundant nutritive material in the body. Feverish- 

 ness, filled legs, and other signs of a " heated " state of the 

 system, will often result from neglect of the precaution of 

 giving a hunter a laxative before putting him into work. 

 It is evident that a sound horse which has been kept in 

 healthy exercise and has been fed on suitable food, will 

 require no medicine before being prepared for hunting or 

 any other kind of work. A safe and efficient form of physic 

 for the object in question is Epsom salts, which may be given 

 two or three times a day in doses of 4 oz. in the food, or 8 oz. 

 in one dose as a drench. 



There will generally be no trouble in finding fairly good 

 turf on the sides of the road (Frontispiece) for purposes of 

 exercise ; and in Leicestershire, the frequent bridle paths 

 afford excellent facilities for this end. Monotony in work is 

 a serious trial to the temper of horses that are being trained 

 for racing, as we may see by the eagerness with which these 

 animals as a rule try to finish their gallops in order to get 

 back to their stables ; and it is no doubt a frequent cause of 

 their becoming excitable and learning to pull. Many horses 

 which have been trained and raced, will break out into a pro- 

 fuse sweat if they are brought on a racecourse, and will try 

 to escape from a place which they evidently detest. Hunting, 

 on the contrary, has in the large majority of cases a sedative 

 effect on a horse's nerves ; apparently because it is free from 

 monotony, and, when engaged in it, a horse never knows when 



