80 THE HUNTER. 



with a whip, he is forced to take his fences at a 

 certain pace ; and, in a very short time, a good 

 tempered colt will take them with apparent plea- 

 sure. 



At five years old it is customary to consider a 

 horse as a hunter ; but we are inclined to demur 

 here. It is true, that if a colt has been very well 

 kept, on the hard meat system, he is enabled to go 

 through a good day's work with hounds at five 

 years old, being quite equal to a six-year-old, which 

 has been kept on soft food, and not sufficiently 

 forced by corn ; yet it is always attended with dan- 

 ger of injury to his joints and sinews, if not to his 

 general constitution ; and we cannot pronounce a 

 horse to be a hunter until he has passed his fifth 

 year. As muscular action, however, produces mus- 

 cular growth, he should not be kept in idleness 

 during his fifth year, but should be ridden to cover, 

 or with harriers, before Christmas ; and when the 

 ground gets dry and light in the spring, a good 

 burst with fox-hounds may not do him harm. We 

 do not, however, consider any five-year-old horse 

 fitting or safe to carry a gentleman over a country, 

 as he cannot be sufficiently experienced to take a 

 straight line. 



We have known some masters of fox-hounds who 

 have preferred purchasing yearling colts, or wean- 

 lings, at Michaelmas, to breeding them for their 

 own use. The classical reader cannot fail calling 

 to his recollection here the practical lesson which 

 Virgil, in his third Georgic, imparts on this head ; 

 neither can the purchaser of such animals do better 



