THE BREEDING OF HUNTERS AND HACKS. 191 



enoug'h, nor active enough to be either first or second of 

 her order j and that wonderful nick with the thorough- 

 bred horse had done it all for his fiUj — a fact 

 which even a possibly partial owner saw as plainly 

 as I did. 



This brings me to another branch of my subject. 

 Having secured the use of a good, promising horse, let 

 us as early as possible go on to prove him. The four- 

 year-old hunting' class is the favourite one at our agricul- 

 tural meetings ; but I am not quite sure but that the 

 yearling and two-year-old classes are not more advanta- 

 geous in their effects to the breeders. In the first place, 

 if a man has a tolerably good-looking* foal, he may begin 

 to keep him rather better than I fear many farmers are 

 inclined to, if he thinks of exhibiting him as a yearhng. 

 Then, if he so chooses, this said exhibition may be some- 

 thing of a market. It is not every man who has the time 

 or ability to ^* make" young- horses ; and there is always 

 some risk in breaking, and so forth. A fair offer should 

 consequently seldom be refused, especially if it comes at 

 an early period in the colt's career ; but this is a part of 

 the business, again, that agriculturists are scarcely up in. 

 If they have a good-looking young* one, they are terribly 

 apt to over-stay their time with him, and to keep him 

 about home until he gets thoroughly blown on. A dealer 

 has the opportunity of shifting a staymaker that no farmer 

 can ])ossibly command ; and even further, this " making" 

 of a hunter of a very necessity implies a deal of knocking 

 about. A friend of my own once refused an offer of be- 

 tween two and three hundred guineas for a prize two- 

 year-old from a neighbouring Master of Hounds, only to 

 keep him on until from a series of mishaps the chesnut 

 horse became almost unsaleable, and never afterwards 



