THE BREEDING OF HUNTERS AND HACKS. 199 



sliow, they hardly knew how to class, either as a riding-- 

 horse or as a common draiight-horse. However, as my 

 friend adds, ^^ every Devon farmer, as a rule, breeds or 

 tries to breed riding'-stock, and, as a consequence, in some 

 hole-and-corner holdings a stylish promising- nag colt is 

 often dropped upon where a stranger would think it about 

 as likely to find an elephant." 



So much for a fitting foundation. But let the 

 thorough-bred staUion, under the countenance of the Hunt, 

 be ever so well adapted for his purpose, and the mare 

 really worthy of his caresses, the business of breeding is 

 yet only in the beginning. Better bred stock require 

 better treatment, and pay better for it. Half a horse's 

 goodness, as it is said, goes in at his mouth ; and it will 

 be idle for farmers to attempt rearing riding-horses with- 

 out they do them a deal better than, as a rule, they 

 hitherto have done. A half-starved foal never forgets it j 

 and from the day he is dropped he must be the object of 

 some care and attention. Does the dam g-ive a good sup- 

 ply of milk ? Does the young thing look as if he was 

 doing well ? Let his feet be looked to, as he grows on ^ 

 and, above all, let him be well kept, have a fair supply of 

 corn, comfortable, sheltered quarters, and so forth. I am 

 no advocate for over-coddhng, nor would I wish to see 

 the hunting-colt brought on as if his mission was to win 

 the Derby; but liberal rations, kindly treatment, and 

 g-entle handling will all tell by the time he is first led 

 into the show-ring, or delivered over to the breaker. I 

 confess to having some dread of that same country breaker, 

 with all his wonderful paraphernalia and apparently indis- 

 pensable habit of hanging about public-houses, as a means 

 of making young horses " handy." No man needs more 

 .watching' ; and, as I have just intimated, a vast deal may 



