244 FOX-HUNTING IN THE SHIRES 



the first place in the choice of a Leicestershire hunter. 

 Indeed, when we see combined in one animal not 

 merely the necessary points, the strength, the endur- 

 ance and the speed combined with good looks, such a 

 horse is apt to find a career in the show yard and to 

 be lost to the hunting field. Horses, for example, 

 like Mr. Cory's Gendarme, Sir Humphrey de Trafford's 

 Brampton and Red Cloud would naturally be ridden 

 with care and saved for the ring. If, when their show 

 career was over, they should be put to hunting, they 

 might easily be beaten in the field by horses that would 

 stand no chance with them in the show ring. This 

 fact — and fact it is — has really no bearing on the 

 utility of horse shows, on the soundness or unsound- 

 ness of the judgment of the judges, or even on the 

 actual merits of the horses in question. It is quite 

 right, if horse shows are to do their legitimate work, 

 that a horse should be shown in top condition and 

 with a bloom on him. The horse show is not intended 

 as a competition for actual performances, but to set 

 before breeders and dealers a living picture of the ideal 

 hunter, a type or standard at which we ought to aim. 

 It is quite true that, as I have written above, it 

 would be foolish to reject a horse because he was 

 rather plain. But a horse is none the better for being 

 ugly ; indeed the ugliness is so far a sign of defects. 

 The plain, or ugly, horse lacks that perfect symmetry 

 which, in animals at least, often goes with consummate 

 powers. To say that show horses are often of no use in 

 the field is nothing to the purpose. The horse has 

 been kept in lavender for the show yard and he lacks 

 the experience in crossing a country which is as neces- 

 sary to a horse as it is to his rider, if either are to 

 become first-rate performers. It is very evident that 

 a good hunter is always learning to measure his leaps, 



