REPLENISHING THE STUD 47 



him or not, and he will be able to get on friendly 

 terms with his new purchase before the galloping 

 begins in earnest. One thing must be firmly 

 impressed on the would-be-buyer's mind, and that 

 is, under no circumstances to buy a horse that is 

 not suited to the country. A horse that would 

 be a safe conveyance over Leicestershire or North- 

 amptonshire would prove a very sorry mount in 

 the moors and hills which abound in the Cleveland 

 and Captain Johnstone's countries. 



There are some men who go about the country 

 saying that hunting men should buy their horses 

 of farmers, and that if they do not do so they are 

 acting unfairly to the men over whose land they 

 ride. With this opinion I emphatically disagree, 

 and in the long run there is no pecuniary saving 

 by so doing. Indeed, I am convinced that for a 

 man who wants to hunt for amusement, it is a 

 mistake to buy his horses from a farmer, and 

 that sooner or later he will regret it. To begin 

 with, it is seldom that a farmer has a horse that 

 has come to age. Most farmers' horses are picked 

 up at four years old, or at five years old at the 

 most, and my experience of hunting tells me that 

 no horse under six years old is fitted to carry a 

 man a long day's hunting, week after week, with- 

 out missing his turn, and probably breaking down 

 in the long run. Of course, there are farmers 

 and farmers, and I know of many farmers whose 

 farming is subordinated to their dealing in hunters. 

 To these men you can go without fear. But the 

 farmer who has but two or three horses of his 

 own is the man to avoid. It is highly improbable, 

 though he be a good man over a country himself, 

 that his horses will carry you with hounds with 



