On Conditioning Hunters 259 



without making him look like a greyhound. 

 The season, as it progresses, will do that for 

 you only too effectively; and if you make 

 him into a greyhound to start hunting with, 

 he will be fit to take a header through a 

 keyhole before Christmas ! Speaking of this 

 reminds me of a little scene on Newmarket 

 Heath. Poor old George Fordham was gazing 

 at the weedy-looking Discord, just as he 

 had been saddled for a race — the Biennial, I 

 think it was. " He'd make a beautiful grey- 

 hound if you could get him to swallow a 

 conger-eel, wouldn't he ? " said the jockey 

 contemplatively. 



The time required for getting a hunter fit 

 to go is more or less an unknown quantity, 

 for the very simple reason that one never 

 finds two horses exactly alike in constitution. 

 Some get fit on so much less work than 

 others ; one usually notices also, that a free 

 sweater will come to hand much more readily 

 than one with a slow-acting skin. But speak- 

 ing broadly, most horses will " gallop on " 

 after a couple of months' preparation. 



