OF A HUNTER, 319 



mouth, in all probability, will not be the 

 worse for it. 



The Earl of Pembroke, in his Military 

 Equitation, is, I find, of the same opinion : 

 he tells us, — " It is of the greatest conse- 

 quence for horses to be kept clean, regularly 

 fed, and as regularly exercised : but whoever 

 chooses to ride in the way of ease and plea- 

 sure, without any fatigue on horseback, or, 

 in short, does not like to carry his horse, in- 

 stead of his horse's carrying him, must not 

 suffer his horse to be exercised by a groom ; 

 standing up on his stirrups, holding himself 

 on by means of the reins, and thereby hang- 

 ing his whole dead weight on the horse's 

 mouth, to the entire destruction of all that 

 is good, safe, or pleasant about the animal." 

 And in another place he says, — " Horses 

 should be turned loose somewhere, or walked 

 about ever}^ day, when they do not work, 

 particularly after hard exercise: swelled legs, 

 physic, &c. will be saved by these means, 

 and many distempers avoided."' He also ob- 

 serves, that — "it is a natter of the greatest 

 consequence, though few attend to it, to feed 

 horses according to their work. When the 

 work is hard, food should be in plenty ; when 



