TRAINING OF COLTS. 



79 



it is of little use to breed colts with the expectation 

 of their making first-rate horses, unless they keep 

 them 'eery well in their colthood. They should also 

 be treated <zs horses at a very early age. They 

 should be ridden gently, and by a light man, or 

 boy, with good hands, at three years old, across 

 rough ground, and over small fences ; and at four 

 they should be shown hounds ; but they should 

 only follow them at a distance, and after the fences 

 are broken down ; for, if put to take large leaps at 

 that tender age, they are apt to get alarmed, and 

 never make first-rate fencers afterwards. Above 

 all things, avoid getting them into boggy ditches, 

 or riding them at brooks ; but they should be prac- 

 tised at leaping small ditches, if wath water in them 

 the better, in the middle of a field, the rider put- 

 ting them at them in rather a brisk gallop. This 

 gives them confidence, and, the natural result, cou- 

 rage. With respect to the use of the bar, and 

 teaching colts to leap standing over it, the practice 

 is now condemned, and the system of letting them 

 become timber jumpers, by taking it, as it comes, 

 in crossing a country, is preferred, the present rate 

 of hounds not admitting of the time occupied in a 

 standing leap. 



Some sportsmen adopt, and we believe with good 

 effect, what is termed the " circular bar." Every 

 description of fence that a hunter is likely to meet 

 with, is placed within a prescribed circle of ground, 

 and in this is the colt exercised or " lounged,'" as 

 the term is, the man who holds him standing upon 

 a sta^re in the centre. As another man follows him 



