OF THE HUNTER. 
33 
any other month in the year, with such horses as I had summered 
myself; and, no doubt, many of your readers will recollect the seve- 
ral proofs I adduced of this fact. “ But you are such a devil of a 
fellow for physic,” said my neighbour, the late Mr. Chute, master 
of the Vine hounds, invariably to me, whilst pointing out to him 
his horses sweating, even to lather, when trotting to cover in Octo- 
ber ; whereas mine were as dry as when they crossed the thresh- 
hold of their stable. But physic ! physic, my dear sir ! must 
horses have if perfect condition is our object, together with dry 
food eleven months in the year, and a July stable. Nothing else 
will do it ; nothing else has ever done it : and until within the last 
dozen years not one hunter in twenty has been seen in condition 
until long after Christmas. What said Lord Gardner, within my 
hearing, last March, by a cover side in Leicestershire ? — “ Mus- 
grave’s horses,” said he, “ are at last getting into condition ! ” (Al- 
luding to those of that fine sportsman, Sir James Musgrave, who 
summers his horses in his park). Those of his lordship, perhaps 
the hardest rider in England, are never out of their stalls, and but 
little reduced in their feeds of good old oats and beans. My good 
sir, nothing else will do it to perfection ; and to horses so kept, 
October or March is equal, as to affecting their constitutions and 
deteriorating their physical powers. They are, in fact, superior 
to all such influences as the exchanging old hairs for new ones. 
And is not such the case — mutatis mutandis — with the human 
race? Why were the deaths of the French in the cholera one 
hundred to six, in proportion to those of the English, in the parish 
in which I now live ? Merely because they were unable, by the 
washy nature of their food, equally to resist the disease. 
It is impossible to have horses in what is called “ tip-top condi- 
tion” all the year round. The race horse, the hunter, and the hack, 
must have rest, or each will become stale, and consequently, when 
called upon, will one day or another fail, and very unexpectedly so. 
How often has it happened to me to find a sudden change of this 
sort — to find the horse I was riding sweating when he ought to have 
been cold; dull and languid in his action, when he ought to have 
been fresh, and with damp and cold ears. What causes this ? 
Nature operating on his constitution? Nothing of the sort; art 
has caused the mischief. The bow has been drawn too tight, and 
continued so too long ! In other words, he is become stale, and re- 
quires to be let down in his condition, which a dose or two of mild 
physic will effect. In fact, to ensure condition, it is my fixed opinion, 
that no horse, highly fed and severely worked, should be more than 
two months without a dose of mild physic. There is, at all events, 
no calculating on his services without it. 
I rejoice to find Mr. Gabriel as strenuous an advocate for warmth, 
VOL. XIV. E 
