THE GROOISI i;37 



as he does not know how soon the pail ma)- be withdrawn 

 from his head. 



Some horses are much more fretful and much more easily 

 excited than others, but as a general principle, fretfulness is 

 more the characteristic of young horses than of old ones. 

 Indeed, fretfulness is such a drawback to a hunter, that a 

 horse that carries it beyond years of discretion, say seven, is 

 generally recommended " to turn his attention to something 

 else," as they say in the Guards when they want to get rid of 

 a man. Young horses may readily be excused for a little 

 nervous irritability with so exciting a cause as the chase, and 

 it should be the duty of the Groom to remove all causes 

 as much as possible, and keep things as near their usual 

 course and appearance as they can. For instance, in taking a 

 young horse to lie out over night, instead of leaving him in 

 the stable when the others go to exercise, and then about the 

 middle of the day stripping him and rolling up his things and 

 fussing about the stable, putting all agog, he should just lead 

 him out when the others go to exercise, sheeted and all, get 

 his stable things quietly up, and ride leisurely and easily 

 away, without all the fuss and elbow working that says to the 

 horse as well as to the whole world—" here we are away for 

 the Mountain daisy, to meet Squire Rattlccovcr's hounds to- 

 morrow." Because horses can't talk and hold dialogues with 

 their riders after the fashion of Balaam's ass, some fellows 

 fancy they have no more instinct or memories than the 

 saddles on which they ride. Starting for cover in the 

 morning, again, should always be done as quietly and soberly 

 as possible, where a horse is at all subject to nervous irri- 

 tation. The sight of a scarlet coat in advance will set many 

 a horse off, that would otherwise have been got coolly and 

 comfortably to the meet. Some gentlemen have a nasty 

 trick of going out to breakfast on hunting mornings and 

 setting whole strings of horses on the fret by cantering past 



