SUMMERING THE HUNTER. 189 



the preference to the house at night with horses 

 free from disease. 



The state of the horses, summered as we have 

 now described, will in great measure resemble each 

 other, although, as may be supposed, the one which 

 has been kept on in his exercise will be most for- 

 ward in condition. Neither of them, however, will 

 have lost much of tlieir proper form ; but a dis- 

 tinction must be made in our proceedings wdth 

 them, when preparing them for the forthcoming 

 season. " Suffer a horse to be idle," says Mr. 

 Percival, "to do little or no work, and feed him 

 well during the time, and the redundant nourish- 

 ment floating in his blood will be laid up in the 

 form of fat ; put the same animal to work, and that 

 blood, which otherwise would have been turned 

 into fat, will now be transformed into materials of 

 strength." Here, then, it is evident that the horse 

 which has been kept in exercise will require some- 

 what of a different preparation to the one which 

 has remained unshod, and consequently idle. The 

 first will require very little alteration in his pro- 

 ceedings until nearly the approach of the hunting 

 season, as he will soon be prepared for quick work ; 

 but it will be by long- continued slow work, in- 

 creasing in pace as his condition increases, that the 

 second will be quite himself again, from the relaxed 

 state of his muscles, somewhat redundant flesh, as 

 well as his distended belly. In either case, how- 

 ever, there will be no occasion for all that physick- 

 ing, galloping, and sweating, to get rid of bad, 

 superfluous flesh, that the grass-fed hunter has 



