BREEDING OF HUNTERS AND HACKS. 
421 
looking foal, he may begin to keep him rather better than I 
fear many farmers are inclined to, if he thinks of exhibiting 
him as a yearling. Then, if he so chooses, this said exhi¬ 
bition may be something of a market. Tt is not every man 
who has the time or ability to make young horses ; and 
there is always some risk in breaking, and so forth. A fair 
offer should consequently seldom be refused, especially if it 
comes at an early period in the coitus career; but this is a 
part of the business, again, that agriculturists are scarcely up 
in. If they have a good-looking one, they are terribly apt 
to overstay their time with him, and to keep him about 
home until he gets thoroughly blown on. A dealer has the 
opportunity of shifting a stay-maker that no farmer can pos¬ 
sibly command; and even, further, this making ’’ of a 
hunter of a very necessity implies a deal of knocking about. 
A friend of my own once refused an offer of between two 
and three hundred guineas for a prize two-year-old from a 
neighbouring master of hounds, only to 'keep him on until, 
from a series of mishaps, the chestnut horse became almost 
unsaleable, and never afterwards worth a fifth of what was 
first bid for him ! Others will become yet more enamoured 
with their'own, and turn all their geese into ganders. Such 
a man will look at his colt till he finds him to be too good 
either to ride or to sell; and the coarse, fleshy, cocktail 
country stallion is the consequence. His owner^s immediate 
influence in the neighbourhood is sure to get him some 
mares, and as he has never done a day^s w'ork in his life, he 
is possibly free from any very visible strain or blemish, a 
point that is equally certain to be made the most of. It is 
almost needless to say that the presence of such a stallion 
does infinite injury in a district; and if the weedy thorough¬ 
bred should not travel without a license, it would be advisable 
to put down such an animal as this other one by Act of Par¬ 
liament. Some gentlemen, without any of the direct call of 
the M. F. H., will offer their friends the example of a proper 
model of their own freewill. An enthusiast like Mr. Pishey 
Snaith, with a horse so well selected as old Theon—Captain 
Barlow, with Robinson, replaced by Middlesex—and, I must 
add very appropriately here. Captain Watson, with the Bishop 
of Romford^’s cob, followed by Hungerford—must inculcate 
a most useful lesson in their several districts. Theon did 
wonders in this way about Boston ; and, despite their vicinity 
to the capital of the turf, the farmers of Suffolk, until within 
a very few years back, were quite willing to try and breed a 
hunter anyhow,^^ and from anything that came in their 
way. The improvement, thanks to the opportunity at Has- 
XXXVI. 28 
