HTJNTIlfa COlTBITIOir. 67 



kiad, he is trotted with greater briskness in a morning, and 

 the trotting is continued for a longer or shorter period according 

 to circumstances. On some occasions, a fourth dose of purgative 

 mediciae is given ; the necessity for vrhich is determined by the 

 peculiarities of the case. 



In many districts suitable for the purpose, cub hunting is 

 resorted to about the latter end of September, in lieu of the 

 common walking and trotting exercise. The particular course 

 specified above, consisting as it does of dieting, physickiag, 

 and exercising the hunter for the purpose of thoroughly freeing 

 the organism of aU the impurities which act, so to speak, by 

 impeding the wheels of its machinery, cannot be hastily accom- 

 plished. The wind of the animal requires to be purified, vigour 

 given to the muscles, and endurance to the vital energies. By 

 the action of purgative medicine, the body is drained of its 

 superabundant serum; by sweating and grooming a similar 

 process is effected through the medium of the skin ; while at 

 the same time, greater freedom of action is given to the 

 depurating ^nd exhalent organs of the body, or in other words, 

 relieving the pulmonary, vascular, and muscular systems of 

 much that would otherwise prove detrimental to the animal if 

 put to severe and long-continued labour. Condition, then, so 

 far as we at present understand it, is only to be obtained by 

 dieting, grooming, and exercising the animal, aided occasionally 

 by the judicious administration of purgatives. 



The plans which I have detailed, cannot perhaps be adhered 

 to in every instance to the very letter. Horses, like human 

 beings, differ much in constitution. Many of the best hunters 

 are delicate feeders; others are the reverse; and others are 

 naturally of a bad, gross habit of body ; in short, there are 

 horses of various pecularities of constitution, and they require 

 to be known and clearly understood by those having their 



