THE HIRING QUESTION. 57 



his first day or two in comfort, he should instantly 

 bespeak the horse for a month, or even for the whole 

 season, and, if his arrangements allow of it, he should 

 try to hunt this horse twice a week, or at the least three 

 days a fortnight. If he should happen to give the 

 horse one or two heavy days close together, he may 

 then rest him for a day or so, but a new beginner will 

 find that, as a rule, the hireling can stand two ordinary 

 days a week, and that, indeed, he is better if he hunts 

 twice in every seven days than if he had six days of 

 idleness. Of course, the proviso that the horse remains 

 soimd is understood, but the fact is that four -fifths 

 of the hunters in the kingdom are, when in really good 

 condition, quite fit enough to hunt twice a week, and 

 if some of them came out a little oftener than they do 

 there would be less of the bucking and pulling which is so 

 often seen in the early part of a day. Then the novice 

 should bear in mind that livery stable horses are always 

 in good, hard condition, whereas many horses from 

 private stables are often too gross and highly fed, too 

 full of life at the beginning of a day, and too helpless 

 in the afternoon. It does not pay the owner of hirelings 

 to keep them in anything but hard, working condition, 

 and the present writer has known a hireling last to 

 the end of a long day, when he was the only one of 

 six horses to finish a great run, who had been hunting 

 all day, the other five being second horses. And having 

 established friendly relations with a respectable owner 

 of hirelings, the beginner should not forget to be on 

 good terms with the stable staff. The head man of the 

 yard and the man who looks after Mr. Novice's horse 

 should be tipped, more especially if the hirer is using 



