234 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



selves in the bustle and crowd of the hunting field. 

 I am strongly of opinion that many bad falls would 

 be prevented if horses were treated in a more rational 

 manner. The plan of turning hunters out to grass 

 in the summer is bad for their wind and for their 

 legs, but it is better for their minds than the dull 

 sameness of the moss-littered box and the everlasting 

 round on an oft-trodden road. With every want 

 cared for, with his bodily powers kept at the highest 

 point of health and condition, what outlet has a 

 hunter for his mental activities ? In a wild, or semi- 

 wild, state the struggle for existence is still a school 

 for the mind, a stimulus to courage or cunning. A 

 man with a neglected intelligence becomes stupid 

 or develops faults or vices. Why, then, should we 

 be astonished when horses show the same tendency ? 



The stupidity of the horse is often only the reflection 

 of the limited intelligence of the man under whose 

 care and in whose power he is. Nor is it fair to blame 

 grooms as a class ; they are not seldom very intelligent 

 men, but they cannot escape any more than the 

 rest of us from the traditions of their occupation 

 and the habits of their life. The master may be 

 more intelligent than the man, but he acquiesces, 

 whether through indolence or thoughtlessness, in the 

 old routine. 



We often see it stated in books, or hear it said in 

 the horse talk which is so common that we may 

 be surprised it does not result in better manage- 

 ment, that Irish horses with Arab blood or those 

 descended from pony ancestors make the best hunters. 

 Is not this simply because they are nearer to the 

 time when the horse had to use his own wits ? The 

 Irish colt, the Arab horse, and the hill pony all have 

 to learn to take care of themselves, and they use 



