ON CONDITIONING HUNTERS 



There can be little doubt that however much 

 sportsmen may deplore the passing away of 

 " the good old days," for most reasons, that 

 the modern system of getting our hunters fit 

 to go is infinitely preferable to that adopted 

 by our forefathers. The " summer at grass " 

 system now finds hardly any followers ; and 

 though I think that a short period of turning 

 out, say in April or the early part of May, 

 does a horse a great deal of good in cooling 

 his blood — and grass is far preferable to physic 

 when obtainable in this manner as an altera- 

 tive — yet if the run at grass be continued 

 until the weather waxes warm, horses get 

 worried to death with flies, stamp their feet 

 to pieces on adamantine turf, and probably 

 become weakened from want of corn ; unless, 

 indeed, they are regularly fed each day, in 



