Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/200

188 188 HORSE [THE HUNTER. by thoroughbred horses, which but for these interventions come under the care of the hunting groom. xlf- The halfbred hunter, as he is technically called, may be, ed and is, a very good substitute for the thoroughbred ; he .nters. ma y have nineteen-twentieths of pure blood in his veins, and still be only &quot; halfbred.&quot; Perhaps seven-eighths of pure blood is about the average for high-class horses ; but, taking English hunters all round, the majority are halfbred in a more literal sense, being for the most part by a hor.se nearly, if not quite, thoroughbred, out of a common mare. It is much to be regretted that the breeding of halfbred hunters is too often neglected altogether, or at least con ducted on haphazard principles. Many men take it into their heads to breed a colt simply because they have a mare which, owing to age or accident, is no longer fitted for active work; and then, be the mare good, bad, or indif ferent, there is little or no judgment exercised in the choice of a sire. Nearly all country places are periodically visited by travelling stallions, many of which are utterly worthless, but nevertheless the services of one of them are probably secured by the intending breeder simply because of the saving of trouble. He forgets that there is but little dif ference between the charge for a good and that for a bad horse, and finds, when the offspring is ready for sale, that the result of his happy-go-lucky system remains on his hands for lack of a buyer, and costs as much to keep as a valuable animal. Very often, too, a man who has expected to breed a hunter will find himself the owner of a fairly promising colt for a brougham, but having hoped for a hunter he is unwilling to believe it anything else, eert- Compare this method of setting to work with that 3- adopted by breeders of thoroughbred stock, and indeed by all judicious breeders. To begin with, the choice of a dam is a matter of moment ; and it is difficult to see why any thing should be thought good enough fora hunter, even by the inexperienced. The first requisite for a brood-mare is that she should be free from all constitutional infirmities, such as roaring, bad sight, &c. ; and the breeder should be on his guard when breeding from mares whose legs have given way. True, it may be the result of an accident, but care should be taken to ascertain that it arose from that cause, and that a predisposition to inflammation had nothing to do with it. For the same reason persons should be chary of breeding from mares that have splints, spavins, Ac., and should certainly reject one whose dam or sire had them as well. Mares that have done much hard work are not the best dams that can be selected, as they are apt to slip their foals, or to throw undersized ones. The selection of a stallion is the more important the more defects there are in the mare. Should she be the least delicate, the stallion should be remarkable for a hardy constitution, for considering that a hunter has to be out of his stable for as much as twelve hours sometimes, and rarely less than seven or eight, and has to carry a heavy weight and gallop and jump, it is plain that a horse with no stamina would be nearly worthless as a hunter, no matter what other good qualities he might possess. So, too, as to shape : should the mare be too long on the leg or in the back, or too low in front, the stallion should be singularly free from the defect in question. While the mare is in foal she should be kept on the best food, for the nourishment given to her is given indirectly to the foal. The keep of the foal in its early days is not less important than the choice of dam and sire. Thorough bred colts eat corn from the time they are a month or five weeks old ; and the same generous diet should be allowed to halfbred horses, as it is only by this, accompanied of course by proper exercise, that the frames of young horses expand to their full extent, or that a foundation is laid for a good constitution. This system is, of course, more expensive than keeping a colt on hay and grass during the first three years of his life, but it will repay itself in the long run, for very- often under its influence a colt will develop into a weight-carrying hunter or valuable carriage horse, where, under more parsimonious treatment, he would never have grown into anything strong enough to carry over 11 or 12 stone. The breaking and training of hunters is all-important, Brea because, in spite of the care that may have been expended in S a upon the choice of sire and dam and the keep of the colt, many young ones are ruined beyond all hope of recovery during this process. The colt should be handled from the day of its birth, so that it may grow thoroughly accustomed to man, without ever having experienced the feeling of fear. The person selected to attend on mares and foals, as well as he that undertakes the training part, should be naturally fond of animals ; he should be cool, and of an almost imperturbable temper, or he will be unfitted to deal with the waywardness of some of his pupils, which during their early career may at times expose him to personal clanger, especially if they be well bred ; he should there fore be well endowed with courage and firmness, for an irresolute man is sure to spoil every horse he has to do with. When about six months old the colt should receive his first lesson in jumping. Where practicable, there is no better plan than to feed him in one spot, the approach to which is guarded by a stout rail, which should in the first instance lie on the ground, and over which he must step in order to reach his corn. In the course of about a month the rail may be raised 6 inches, and so on from time to time, but the process should be gradual in the extreme ; 2 or 3 inches a month is sufficient until it is a couple of feet high, where it should remain for a time, but at three years the colt should jump it at 3 feet. Before he reaches this age the saddle should have been put on and left there for half an hour at a time, the groom letting the girths and stirrups flap about. At three years the pupil should be backed by a light weight ; if the rider be the usual attendant, so much tiie better, for then it is improb able that much resistance will be shown. The riding exercise should be varied by the young horse being led by a rather long rein over roughish ground, such as a common or a ploughed field, when it is not too hard, and over little ditches and very low fences, but they must be small, as it is very undesirable to have a horse refuse at first, or to have him fall down in attempting a jump. He should be subsequently ridden over small places, but should always have a lead given to him by an old horse ; and the two should stand in adjoining boxes, so that the colt may be accustomed to his pilot. At four years old he may be ridden to the meet, and suffered to see a fox found, but should on no account be ridden up to the hounds, nor should he be used as a regular hunter till he is six, if not till seven it will be all the better for him. In the hunting field there are three kinds of jumps at which many refusals and falls take place. The first is timber, the second water or wide open ditches, and the third a hedge with a ditch on the taking off side. As tc timber jumping, the course we have just recommended is the best possible preparation ; in jumping the rail, the colt begins early to exercise, and therefore to strengthen, the very muscles he will want by and by in jumping a gate, if his owner ever rides him at one. A further course of in struction in this most useful art may be given in a &quot;circus,&quot; that is, a double row of posts and rails in a circle about the size of a circus ring. Between the two sets a couple of strong timber jumps should be put up, one of about 3 feet and the other of about 3 feet 6 inches in height ; the horse is then put into the space between, the two rails, one