264 STAG-HUNTING 



cannot hope to see the end of a long straight run 

 unless you have blood and condition ; if your horse 

 is a good hack too, all the better, for you may pro- 

 bably have a long ride home, but nothing is essential 

 except blood and condition ; both of the best. 



For light weights horses between 14.2 and 

 15.2 are to be recommended, as they get down 

 steep hills with more ease to themselves than bigger 

 animals ; yet there are big horses who will go 

 brilliantly. Some years ago an officer spending his 

 winter leave on Exmoor, had a fine upstanding horse 

 by Roman Bee, which he rode well to the front with the 

 utmost regularity. This horse was good enough to win 

 a steeplechase at Sandown in the spring following, and 

 was sold for a large sum. The owner had also a pony 

 about two hands less in height than the steeplechaser, 

 and he went as well on the one as on the other ; very 

 few could beat him. 



All the same a valuable Leicestershire hunter is 

 not in his place with the Devon and Somerset, and a 

 despised hireling not worth 3o/. will often be a better 

 mount. Over such a country light weights have of 

 course a great advantage, though there have always 

 been heavy men who could hold their own, whatever 

 line the hounds ran, and however deep the country 

 might be ; but such men belong to the limited class 



