THOROUGH-BRED HORSES 



two articles of his creed for the hunting season 

 were, "a perfectly pure claret, and thorough-bred 

 horses." Of the former he was unsparing to his 

 friends, the latter he used freely enough for 

 himself. Certainly no man gave pleasanter 

 dinners, or was better carried, and one might do 

 worse than go to Melton with implicit reliance 

 on these twin accessories of the chase. All 

 opinions must be agreed, I fancy, about the one, 

 but there are still many prejudices against the 

 other. Heavy men especially declare they cannot 

 find thorough-bred horses to carry them, for- 

 getting, it would seem, that size is no more a 

 criterion of strength than haste is of speed. The 

 bone of a thorough-bred horse is of the closest 

 and toughest fibre, his muscles are well-developed, 

 and his joints elastic. Do not these advantages 

 infer power, no less than stamina, and in our own 

 experience have we not all reason to corroborate 

 the old-fashioned maxim, "It is action that 

 carries weight " ? Nimrod, who understood the 

 subject thoroughly, observes with great truth, 

 that "'Wind' is strength; when a horse is 

 blown, a mountain or a molehill are much the 

 same to him," and no sportsman who has ever 

 scaled a Highland hill to circumvent a red deer, 

 or walk up to "a point," will dispute the 

 argument. What a game animal it is, that 

 without touch of spur, at the mere pleasure and 



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