26 HORSES AND HOUNDS. 



Hunt's to the hot-house system, as more reasonable. I have 

 known extraordinary distances performed by horses in this 

 rough and ready state, and, with a good allowance of corn, there 

 is not only no lawful impediment to their being better suited to 

 stand all kinds of rough w^eather, and rough work to boot, but 

 the greater probability of their doing so without feeling half 

 the pressure from without, which must weigh heavily upon more 

 pampered forms. Est modus in rebus, however, the middle 

 course is the best, if only for appearance sake, and that is more 

 than half the consideration with owners of hunters in the pre- 

 sent time. I would only suggest, from these remarks, that there 

 is no occasion for the fuss some, or, I may say, nearly all grooms 

 make about hot stables and warm clothing. It is true they like 

 to turn their horses out in good trim, as it is called, and with 

 sleek and shining coats ; for this they deserve praise instead of 

 censure. But whilst their masters avoid Scylla, they need not 

 be wrecked on Charybdis. 



JS'ec, dum hcec vites, vitia, in contraria curras. 



Clipping is one of the finest and most favourable inventions 

 to grooms that ever has yet been introduced. It saves a deal of 

 trouble and elbow grease with a rough-coated animal ; but this is 

 often carried to excess, as many horses are clipped only to save 

 trouble which do not really require it, and this operation when 

 once performed will have to be repeated the next season also, and 

 so on to the end of the chapter. Thorough-bred horses do not 

 require this treatment, but I have seen them subjected to it, 

 and the natural beauty and silky nature of their hair quite 

 spoilt. For rougli half-bred animals, I am a great advocate for 

 clipping, the effects of which are quite wonderful, and the 

 metamorphosis so complete, that a man would scarcely know his 

 own horse again. The alteration in their work is quite as great 

 as in their improved appearance. One man also can locjk after 

 three clipped horses as well, or better, than two rough ones, 

 w^iere economy is the order of the day, and that appears to be 

 a very general, if not favourite, order now-a-days. In the fast 

 coacliing time, and when the team was really turned out in first- 

 rate style, the ostler who looked after the horses belonging to a 

 fashionable fast coaching concern told me that he and a boy had 

 to look after eight horses, and clean the harness also : and, to 

 his credit, I never saw horses or harness turned out in much 

 better trim. Before the railroad era commenced, travelling had 

 been brought to perfection, and, although a seat in a first-class 

 railway carriage is a luxury in comparison with that on a coach 

 box, I must confess, even now, except where time was of great 

 importance, I should prefer the latter to the former. 



