184 THE HUNTING FIELD 



in with the hounds running baci< witli their fox as he led the 

 horse out of the door. 



Some people are desperately inquisitive about a horse's 

 health, temper, appetite, and peculiarities, asking no end of 

 wise questions, and taking no end of precautions, and yet we 

 dare say it never enters the head of one in a hundred to ask 

 if he is a shoe-thrower. Some, we dare say, will smile at the 

 idea, because such a blessing as a shoe-thrower has never 

 fallen to their lot. We remember some years ago being in 

 a party of foxhunters, where the productions of a hunting 

 contributor to one of the sporting magazines was under dis- 

 cussion, and a gentleman observed that he did not think the 

 writer could be a man of much experience, because he spoke 

 of a piebald hunter in the tield as a curiosity, whereas, said 

 the speaker, "piebalds are quite common in our country." 

 So we are all apt to argue from what we ourselves know. 

 This gentleman lived in a country where there was a famous 

 piebald stallion, but we may appeal to our readers whether 

 a piebald horse is not an unusual sight in the hunting field. 

 But this gentleman thought not, and we have the same sort of 

 idea, that shoe-throwers are not so uncommon. Of course all 

 horses will cast their shoes occasionally, but there are some 

 that make a point of doing it at the very earliest opportunit}-. 

 Indeed we are something like the gentleman who li\-ed in the 

 country with a piebald stallion — for a friend of ours once 

 bought a finely shaped white horse at Tattersall's, perfect to 

 look at, fast in his gallop, temperate at his fences, but who 

 invariabl}' pulled off a fore shoe before he had gone over half- 

 a-dozen leaps — nay, we have known both shoes to come off 

 together. And yet there was nothing the matter with the 

 horse's feet ; they were good, sound, healthy feet — he did it by 

 catching the hind shoes with the fore, and no contrivance or 

 ingenuity could prevent his doing it. Now that is a case 

 " in point," as the lawyers say, and though we admit the 



