76 THE HUNTING-FIELD. 



the wear upon each, ivldle going, would be the 

 same, and practice would in no shape diminish the 

 effect the work would have on the wheel. But 

 with animate objects it is quite different; for with 

 them habit and practice do diminish the effect 

 both of peculiar work and peculiar regimen. 



The effect of the canter, or even trot, formerly 

 given to a horse coming up from grass loaded 

 with fat, and accustomed for three or four 

 months to total idleness, was possibly as great as 

 the increased work we now give horses has on an 

 animal v/hose limbs and muscles have been kept 

 to a certain degree braced by proper exercise and 

 proper food, during the same period of time. The 

 leg that is in a flaccid and debilitated state from 

 total idleness and soft grass food, would be quite 

 as likely to fly, or, in more familiar phrase, to give 

 way, in a common canter as would the one in a 

 more healthy and vigorous state in the exercising 

 gallop. 



If we w^ere to select two horses of equal sound- 

 ness of limb and constitution, and feed, exercise, 

 stable, and work the one as was done a hundred 

 years since, and treat and work the other as we 

 do hunters of the present day, probably the first 

 might last more banting seasons than the latter ; 

 but for the number of seasons the latter might 

 last, he would be by far the most energetic 

 animal ; and, with all our fast work with hunters, 



