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to get upset over some trifle which throws them 

 hack and delays their education just when they seem 

 to be coming nicely to hand. They very often can 

 be bought cheaply enough, but, unless you have a 

 first-class stud groom, are best left alone. They 

 require more skilful stable management than half- 

 breds, and are more delicate as a rule and more 

 nervous . 



Be careful, if your four-year-old proves a 

 bold, big jumper, not to overface him. If you ride 

 at fences so big that he cannot jump them or can 

 only get over with a fall, he will lose confidence 

 in you. What you want to do is to build up his 

 confidence so that he will face, and face with good 

 will, any fence you put him at. Then if he goes 

 on right, gets experience and gets fit, towards the 

 end of the season may come a glorious day when 

 hounds race for twenty-five or thirty minutes over 

 a big, fair country, and your four-year-old, full 

 of courage and dash, with blind confidence in you, 

 going just where you want and how you want, fairly 

 and squarely has the best of it all the way. He 

 knows he is leading the lot and is proud of it, and 

 who can blame you if you are very proud of him? 



One must not be too hard on four-year-olds, 

 but once you have got them really fit, a light- 

 weight can see great sport on them, especially if 

 the going is not too deep. A keen lad is apt to 

 keep them out too long and take them out too often. 

 This tells on them and is apt to develop a weak 

 spot. If they have shown lameness, give them a 

 little time after they are quite sound again; it 

 will pay you in the end, even if you have to stay 

 at home when sport is good. 



I once saw a very good and severe hunt well on 

 a four-year-old that had never before been out 

 hunting, save one half -day in the woods during 

 which he never saw a fence, but then he had condi- 

 tion. He was full of old oats and had been doing 

 a lot of dog-cart work, and fast work at that. 

 Many years afterwards, when reading with interest 

 'The History of the Meynell', I came across a re- 



