116 THE POCKET AN'D THE STUD. 



goodness is, no doubt, its fragrant smell ; but even 

 this might deceive us if we merely trusted to our 

 nose, for I have smelt hay very fragrant that had 

 been more heated than it should be to be for a 

 galloping horse. Horses like it, and I have heard 

 people say it fattens. I suspect its fattening 

 quality is chiefly that horses, if allowed to do so, 

 will eat a great deal of it, — no recommendation 

 to a hunter's stable. But we will suppose the 

 hay to be sweet, fragrant, and of a good colour, 

 showing it had been got up free from wet, and 

 not overheated in the rick. Now as to its quality 

 and substance. 



It used to be a received opinion among grooms, 

 and, indeed, many others, that hunters should 

 eat none but '' good hard hay." Now, nothing 

 in the shape of sweet hay could be more improper 

 to give any horse intended for fast work than 

 such hay: nor, indeed, is it desirable for any 

 horse or beast. 



First, then, for galloping horses, the great 

 desideratum is to get into them the greatest pos- 

 sible quantity of nourishment in the least possible 

 compass; consequently, whatever we give them 

 should, of course, be the most nutritious of its 

 kind. Of what does this "good hard hay'' con- 

 sist, and what constitutes its hardness? Its 

 hardness is simply this — there is a much larger 

 proportion of a kind of grass called '' bent " in it 



