60 PRACTICAL HINTS FOR HUNTING NOVICES. 



he still likes hunting, and intends to go on with it, 

 he will in all probability wish to ride his own horses, 

 and then, unless he has a natural aptitude for the game 

 of dealing, his troubles will begin. The one-horse 

 man who tries to get a useful hunter at a price ranging 

 between £50 and £100 cannot have the pick of the 

 market, but he ought to be able to procure what he 

 wants if he will only exercise patience, and not allow 

 himself to be carried away by what he is told. Countless 

 volumes and treatises have been written on this subject 

 of buying horses, and much good and some bad advice 

 has been given, and I am not going to add to the mass 

 of literature which horse dealing has brought forth ; 

 but the very few practical hints I shall give are the 

 result of experience, and should therefore be of some 

 value. And it must be understood that I am not 

 writing for the horsey man, even though he may be 

 a hunting novice, but rather for the man who is as 

 ignorant about horses as he is of hunting, and who has 

 everything to learn in connection with both. Firstly, 

 then, it may be said that no absolute novice should 

 think it necessary that he should own a horse before 

 he begins to hunt. If he happens to have a horse, 

 and the horse is a suitable one, so much the better for 

 him ; but when he goes to market for the first time he 

 will be in a far better position if he has already gained 

 some experience in the hunting field on a hireling or a 

 borrowed horse. 



Next comes the question of whether the intending 

 purchaser is a townsman or a countryman, for whilst 

 the former is almost compelled to buy at an auction, 

 or from a dealer's yard, the latter is often in a position to 



