110 THE HUNTING-FIELD. 



in race-liorses that liave been overmarked and 

 overmatched in their racing career. She was 

 stale on her legs, and, like the last, looked stale in 

 condition. On my inquiring the cause^ I found 

 that the ci-devant stud-groom, guessing that both 

 these horses had been highly fed and strongly 

 worked, had allowed them to remain idle since 

 he had the care of them, thinking by such means 

 to get them fresh, and had been giving beans in 

 addition to oats as a means of getting them more 

 in flesh : the consequence was, as it would ever 

 be in such cases, their skin stuck to them as dry 

 and tight as the covering of a trunk, and had no 

 more gloss on it than a horsehair nose-bag. 



On mounting, a few steps showed the failing. 

 She went so awfully unsafe that it would be a 

 service of danger to ride her to meet hounds, and 

 a forlorn hope to ride her home again. 



She galloped and fenced beautifully, but leaning 

 on the hand for support, showed she had been ac- 

 customed to this from having carried weight quite 

 beyond what her appearance and size seemed cal- 

 culated for; still it was easy to feel her powers 

 were extraordinary, thus corroborating an opinion 

 I ever maintained, that, figuratively speaking, we 

 never know what a horse can or cannot carry 

 " till ive try,'" — still she was no hunter. 



The black I soon disposed of, or, rather, he 

 disposed of himself. He possessed immense 



