The Sport of Our <J[ncestors 



does not contain some account of the horses getting tired. 

 Sometimes they died, sometimes it was thought necessary 

 to bleed them, sometimes they had to be left out for the 

 night. Such distressing accompaniments to a day's pleasure 

 may be accounted for by the lack of drainage and the conse- 

 quent heavy going, as well as by the fact that in those days 

 horse-masters had still a lot to learn. Clipping must have 

 been a very difficult problem before the clipping machine 

 was invented. Hunters in some stables were shaved with 

 the razor, but no doubt their coats were allowed to grow 

 very late in the autumn in order to postpone such a desperate 

 operation as late as possible, in the hope that it might not 

 have to be repeated before the end of the season. Now there 

 is nothing that handicaps a hunter more than a long coat. 

 His coat begins to grow in the autumn, at the very time 

 when the pores of his skin should be free to give him every 

 possible advantage while the process of conditioning is being 

 carried out. It is not too much to say that the invention 

 of the clipping machine vv^as something like a revolution in 

 the science of horse-mastership. If a gentleman with a stud 

 of hunters were obliged to forgo either his clipping machine 

 or his motor-car, he would have to keep the clipping machine 

 and let the other go if he wanted to enjoy himself out hunt- 

 ing. And the art of the blacksmith was all this time im- 

 proving. We do not hear nearly so much of the vexation of 

 casting shoes. In reading the history of the bygone age it 

 would almost seem to be a matter of even betting whether 

 a hunter kept all his shoes on all day or not. The drainless 



