116 THE HUNTING FIELD 



more efficacious process than clipping, and gets rid of mucli 

 of the singeing and smell-making that concludes that operation. 

 The only difference in point of convenience is, that you cannot 

 well ride a shaved horse without clothing for a week or so after 

 the operation, whereas a clipped one will come out the day 

 after — indeed we once saw a horse out with hounds in Kent, 

 whose forequarters were rough and shaggy, and the hind ones 

 smooth and smart, looking very like a French poodle, a like- 

 ness that was increased b}- the monkeyfied appearance of the 

 man upon it. As to the risk attending either clipping or 

 shaving, we confess we never saw or heard of any ill effects 

 arising from either, though, as we said before, we have seen 

 and felt very great advantages. We maj', therefore, be called 

 " clippers." 



Now to the general subject of Grooms and condition. 



A real Leicestershire Hunting Groom treads closely on the 

 heels of the Training Groom, with respect to condition : he 

 is, in fact, a Training Groom without the "humbug," at least 

 he ought to be without it. Some men keep Grooms to be 

 their masters, and to these the real Training Groom perhaps 

 would be the thing. They then would not get a glimpse of 

 their horses, save by sufferance. We have no notion of paying 

 a man to be our master. A gentleman ought to be just as 

 good a judge of the requirements of a hunter as a Groom, 

 indeed he ought to be a better, because he is the man who 

 has ridden the animal, and he also is the man who knows when 

 he wants to ride him again ; it therefore seems the height of 

 softness and absurdity for a master to put up with the not 

 uncommon answer to a message that he wants to see his horses, 

 that the stable " is shut up." This is carrying the mystery 

 and humbug of the racing stable into the hunting one. It 

 may be right, and necessary in the racing stable ; we don't 

 pretend to give an opinion on that point ; but in nine cases out 

 often it is sheer humbug as applied to hunters. Many a man. 



