nOKSES AND HOUNDS. 25 



I once tried tlie experiment upon a favourite carriage liorse, but 

 failed, with all the care we could give, and that was not a little. 

 I have known a young horse break his thigh bone in struggling, 

 when being thrown down, to have an operation performed. In 

 suddenly turning a corner, also, I have seen the same thing 

 occur. 



Broken bones, however, with horses, although so frequently 

 falling, in one way or another, are of rare occurrence; and it is 

 fortunate they are so, as the liorse is almost an impracticable 

 animal to deal with in such cases. 



In all hunting establishments, and, I may add, in every case 

 where it is practicable, horses should have the luxury of a loose 

 box to themselves. It is not only a Kixury to the horse, but 

 it enables him to recover himself so much quicker after a hard 

 day's work. Instead of being tied up in narrow stalls with 

 scarcely room to turn round, and only sufficient to lie down in 

 one position, and that not comfortably either, he will there have 

 room to rest as he pleases, and enjoy the free use of his limbs. 

 It is a most mistaken idea to suppose that hunters, or horses 

 much exposed to the weather, require to be kept so warm as 

 they often are, Nothing, I am satisfied, is more prejudicial to 

 their health and lungs than the noxious and overheated atmo- 

 sphere of many stables, in which they are obliged to exist twelve 

 hours out of the twenty-four. Let any one who questions this 

 pay a visit, early in the morning, to stables containing several 

 horses, when they are first opened ; or look at the general ap- 

 pearance of grooms whose occupation is in such places. Their 

 pale faces clearly prove the unhealthy state of the air in a hot, 

 crowded stable. The care which some of these men take, in 

 their mistaken zeal, to exclude every particle of fresh air from 

 the stable is quite extraordinary, and proves how little common 

 sense ever enters into their calculations. I had much rather 

 keep a horse in a barn during the winter months, with good 

 warm clothing, than in such places as common stables, and, I 

 am quite satisfied, he would enjoy better health, and be less 

 liable to catch cold, or subject to diseases of any kind, and 

 would do much more work, than any hot-house plant. The late 

 Mr. Hunt, of radical notoriety, when a young man, living with 

 his father on the Wiltshire Downs, kept his hunters in the open 

 yard during the hunting season, with a shed to go into as they 

 liked ; and I have heard my father say, with whom he hunted 

 in those days, that with these horses, so kept, he would beat 

 almost the whole field, himself and another excepted, who rode 

 thorough-bred horses. This was carrying things to the other 

 extreme point; but, of the two plans, I should prefer Mr. 



