CHAPTER XVIII.
The Condition of Hunters.
As the value of most of the foregoing suggestions as regards a lady riding to hounds is more or less dependent upon the form and condition in which the horse destined to carry her in the chase is put, I trust a few words upon this important subject may be acceptable.
In the first place, then, experience proves that the getting of a horse into really good condition is a work of considerable time, and that when once the animal has arrived at the desired point of physical health which will enable him to make the most of his powers, as a rule, it is considered to the last degree undesirable that anything should be done to throw him out of his form.
Many years ago it was considered that a horse that had been hunted regularly through a season should be turned out to grass throughout the summer, and that if he was taken up when the crops were off the ground, there was time enough to get him fit by November; while it was considered altogether unnecessary to give him more than one feed of corn a day while turned out. In numerous cases I have known he had none from April to September.
The present form of treating hunting horses is diametrically the reverse of the foregoing. A horse once "wound up" (as it is technically called) for hunting is generally kept up all the year round; his spring and summer training consisting of long, slow, steady work, principally walking exercise.
Now, my own opinion, based upon many years of experience and close observation, does not agree with either of the foregoing practices.
The first evidently was wrong, because a horse, even running in and out throughout the entire summer, though well kept on corn, will put up an amount of adipose substance, which cannot be got off in two months, with due regard to the preservation of proper quality and muscular fibre. While, on the other hand, I believe that, although by keeping your horse up all the year round you will bring him out in rare form in November, yet still he will not last you so long as one that has had fair play given to his lungs by a few weeks' run when the spring grass is about; for, however good the sanitary arrangements of our modern stables and the ventilation of boxes may be, the air breathed in them cannot be so pure as that of a fresh green meadow. Men and women require a change of air once a year at least, and everybody who can afford it looks forward with pleasurable anticipation to their autumn holiday. Why should the noble animal who has carried us so well and so staunchly through many a hard run be denied his relaxation and his change of air in the spring?
As a substitute for turning horses out for a brief run in the spring, it is customary in some stables to cut grass and give it, varied by vetches and clover, to the horse in his box. These salutary alteratives are good in themselves, but there is still wanting the glorious fresh air of the open paddock, which, when all nature is awakening from the long slumber of winter, is so renovating to the equine system.
It is best to fetch your horse up at night, because it is in the night when turned out that he eats the most; but the object of giving the animal his liberty is not that he may blow himself out with grass, but that, in addition to the purifying effect to the blood of spring herbage, he shall also breathe the spring air unadulterated. If this is carried out, I believe those who practise it will find that their hunters will last them many years longer than those that are kept at what may be called "high stable pressure" all the year round.