104 HUNTING THE FOX 



trap. This slight experience is here given for what 

 it is worth. Van mares were chosen as being, 

 perhaps, a shade nearer to the thoroughbred than 

 a cart mare. But even so, this experiment in blend- 

 ing is not very encouraging. 



What, then, is the alternative ? The only 

 alternative is to go on as we are doing now, and 

 make the very best of the experience we now 

 have. And this experience is in our favour. All 

 the best hunters we have ridden are either purely 

 thoroughbred or got by a thoroughbred sire from 

 a hunter mare with quality inherited from her own 

 father, whose name is in the Stud Book. One of 

 the main values, and certainly the main charm 

 of the animal we all want to ride, is courage. 

 There is nothing more wonderful than the courage 

 of a well-bred horse. Now a plebeian ancestry 

 may conduce to the size of its posterity, but it is 

 not calculated to endow it with courage. Let us 

 therefore make the best possible use of the material 

 we have ready to our hand in the shape of hunter 

 mares, not far removed from the thoroughbred. 

 It is almost a sacred obligation for any one who 

 owns a mare of this kind either to breed from her 

 or else to take every means in his power to see that 

 she is bred from — supposing that he has to part 

 with her. 



Let us now imagine that we have bred the 

 animal we want, and that he is four years old. 



