HUNTING THE FOX 101 



brood mares and all stock up to seven years old. 

 Every Hunt in the kingdom might have its own 

 show, or join with neighbouring Hunts for the 

 purpose of holding a joint show. A Hunt Horse 

 Show need not conflict with county shows already 

 estabhshed. On the contrary, it will tend to help 

 the county shows by stimulating and widening 

 the local interest in horse-breeding. But its main 

 value lies in the fact that it brings the subscribers 

 to any given pack of Foxhounds into personal 

 and responsible touch with the breeding of the 

 animals which are destined to carry them across 

 country. The subscribers to the show will mostly 

 be the same ladies and gentlemen who subscribe 

 to the Hounds. They attend the show, and there 

 have the opportunity of inspecting all the young 

 horses and made hunters belonging to the farmers 

 in the district. The show might almost become 

 a kind of fair. In addition to farmers' classes there 

 should also be classes for the subscribers them- 

 selves, in which the farmers are invited to exhibit. 

 The breeding of hunters should no longer be left 

 to the farmers alone. It is obviously the wisest 

 policy, if he wants to follow the Hounds on horse- 

 back instead of on foot, for every hunting man to 

 keep a brood mare of his own. It may be urged, 

 in answer to all this, that a Hunt Horse Show 

 presents financial difficulties that cannot be over- 

 come. The answers to this objection are, that 



