ON HUNTING.
"The sailor who rides on the ocean,
Delights when the stormy winds blow:
Wind and steam, what are they to horse motion?
Sea cheers to a land Tally-ho?
The canvas, the screw, and the paddle,
The stride of the thorough-bred hack,
When, fastened like glue to the saddle,
We gallop astern of the pack."
TARPORLEY HUNT SONG, 1855.
Advantage of hunting.--Libels on.--Great men who have
hunted.--Popular notion unlike reality.--Dick Christian and the
Marquis of Hastings.--Fallacy of "lifting" a horse refuted.--Hints
on riding at fences.--Harriers discussed.--Stag-hunting a necessity
and use where time an object.--Hints for novices.--Tally-ho!
expounded.--To feed a horse after a hard ride.--Expenses of horse
keep.--Song by Squire Warburton, "A word ere we start."
Every man who can ride, and, living within a couple of hours' distance
of a pack of hounds, can spare a day now and then, should hunt. It will
improve his horsemanship, enlarge his circle of acquaintance, as well as
his tastes and sympathies, and make, as Shakspeare hath it--
"Good digestion wait on appetite, and health on both."
Not that I mean that every horseman should attempt to follow the hounds
in the first flight, or even the second; because age, nerves, weight, or
other good reasons may forbid: but every man who keeps a good hack may
meet his friends at cover side, enjoy the morning air, with a little
pleasant chat, and follow the hounds, if not in the front, in the rear,
galloping across pastures, trotting through bridle gates, creeping
through gaps, and cantering along the green rides of a wood, thus
causing a healthy excitement, with no painful reaction: and if,
unhappily, soured or overpressed by work and anxious thoughts, drinking
in such draughts of Lethe as can no otherwise be drained.
Hunting has suffered as much from overpraise as from the traditionary
libels of the fribbles and fops of the time of the first Georges, when a
fool, a sot, and a fox-hunter were considered synonymous terms. Of late
years it has pleased a sportsman, with a wonderful talent for
picturesquely describing the events of a fox-hunt, to write two sporting
novels, in which all the leading characters are either fools or rogues.
"In England all conditions of men, except bishops, from ratcatchers to
Royalty, are to be found in the hunting-field--equalised by
horsemanship, and fraternising under the influence of a genial sport.
Among fox-hunters we can trace a long line of statesmen, from William of
Orange to Pitt and Fox. Lord Althorp was a master of hounds; and Lord
Palmerston we have seen, within the last few years, going--as he goes
everywhere--in the first flight." This was before the French fall of the
late Premier. Cromwell's Ironsides were hunting men; Pope, the poet,
writes in raptures of a gallop with the Wiltshire Harriers; and
Gladstone, theologian, politician, and editor of Homer, bestrides his
celebrated white mare in Nottinghamshire, and scurries along by the side
of the ex-War Minister, the Duke of Newcastle.
"The progress of agriculture is indelibly associated with fox-hunting;
for the three great landlords, who did more to turn sand and heath into
corn and wool, and make popular the best breeds of stock and best course
of cultivation--Francis, Duke of Bedford; Coke, Earl of Leicester; and
the first Lord Yarborough--were all masters of hounds.
"When indecency formed the staple of our plays, and a drunken debauch
formed the inevitable sequence of every dinner-party, a fool and a
fox-hunter were synonymous. Squire Western was the representative of a
class, which, however, was not more ridiculous than the patched,
perfumed Sir Plumes, whom Hogarth painted, and Pope satirised.
Fox-hunters are not a class now--roads, newspapers, and manufacturing
emigration have equalised the condition of the whole kingdom; and
fox-hunters are just like any other people, who wear clean shirts, and
can afford to keep one or more horses.
"It is safe to assert that hunting-men, as a class, are temperate. No
man can ride well across a difficult country who is not. We must,
however, admit that the birds who have most fouled their own nest have
been broken-down sportsmen, chiefly racing men, who have turned writers
to turn a penny. These unfortunate people, with the fatal example of
'Noctes Ambrosianae' before them, fill up a page, whenever their memory
or their industry fails them, in describing in detail a breakfast, a
luncheon, a dinner, and a supper. And this has been repeated so often,
that the uninitiated are led to believe that every fox-hunter must, as a
matter of course, keep a French cook, and consume an immense cellar of
port, sherry, madeira, hock, champagne, with gallons of strong ale, and
all manner of liqueurs.
"The popular notion of a fox-hunt is as unlike the reality as a girl's
notion of war--a grand charge and a splendid victory.
"Pictures always represent exciting scenes--hounds flying away with a
burning scent; horses taking at a bound, or tumbling neck and crop over,
frightful fences. Such lucky days, such bruising horsemen, such burning
scents and flying foxes are the exception.
"At least two-thirds of those who go out, even in the most fashionable
counties, never attempt brooks or five-barred gates, or anything
difficult or dangerous; but, by help of open gates and bridle-roads,
which are plentiful, parallel lanes, and gaps, which are conveniently
made by the first rush of the straight riders and the dealers with
horses to sell, helped by the curves that hounds generally make, and a
fair knowledge of the country, manage to be as near the hounds as the
most thrusting horseman. Among this crowd of skirters and road-riders
are to be found some very good sportsmen, who, from some cause or other,
have lost their nerve; others, who live in the county, like the
excitement and society, but never took a jump in their lives; young
ladies with their papas; boys on ponies; farmers educating
four-year-olds; surgeons and lawyers, who are looking for professional
practice as well as sport. On cold scenting days, with a ringing fox,
this crowd keeps on until nearly dark, and heads many a fox. Many a
beginner, in his first season, has been cheated by a succession of these
easy days over an easy part of the county into the idea that there was
no difficulty in riding to hounds. But a straight fox and a burning
scent over a grass country has undeceived him, and left him in the third
or fourth field with his horse half on a hedge and half in a ditch, or
pounded before a 'bulfinch,' feeling very ridiculous. There are men who
cut a very respectable figure in the hunting-field who never saw a pack
of hounds until they were past thirty. The city of London turns out many
such; so does every great town where money is made by men of pluck,
bred, perhaps, as ploughboys in the country. We could name three--one an
M.P.--under these conditions, who would pass muster in Leicestershire,
if necessary. But a good seat on horseback, pluck, and a love of the
sport, are essential. A few years ago a scientific manufacturer, a very
moderate horseman, was ordered horse exercise as a remedy for mind and
body prostrated by over-anxiety. He found that, riding along the road,
his mind was as busy and wretched as ever. A friend prescribed hunting,
purchased for him a couple of made hunters, and gave him the needful
elementary instruction. The first result was, that he obtained such
sound, refreshing sleep as he had not enjoyed since boyhood; the next,
that in less than two seasons he made himself quite at home with a
provincial pack, and now rides so as to enjoy himself without attracting
any more notice than one who had been a fox-hunter from his youth
upwards."
The illustration at the commencement of this chapter gives a very fair
idea of the seat of good horsemen going at a fence and broad ditch,
where pace is essential. A novice may advantageously study the seats of
the riders in Herring's "Steeplechase Cracks," painted by an artist who
was a sportsman in his day.
A few invaluable hints on riding to hounds are to be found in the
Druid's account of Dick Christian.
The late Marquis of Hastings, father of the present Marquis, was one of
the best and keenest fox-hunters of his day; he died young, and here is
Dick's account of his "first fence," for which all fox-hunters are under
deep obligations to the Druid.
"The Marquis of Hastings was one of my pupils. I was two months at his
place before he came of age. He sent for me to Donnington, and I broke
all his horses. I had never seen him before. He had seven rare nice
horses, and very handy I got them. The first meet I went out with him
was Wartnaby Stone Pits. I rode by his side, and I says, 'My lord, we'll
save a bit of distance if we take this fence.' So he looked at me and he
laughed, and says, 'Why, Christian, I was never over a fence in my
life.' 'God bless me, my lord! you don't say so?' And I seemed quite
took aback at hearing him say it. 'Its true enough, Christian, I really
mean it.' 'Well, my lord,' says I, 'you're on a beautiful fencer, he'll
walk up to it and jump it. Now I'll go over the fence first. _Put your
hands well down on his withers and let him come._' It was a bit of a
low-staked hedge and a ditch; he got over as nice as possible, and he
gave quite a hurrah like. He says, 'There, I'm over my first
fence--that's a blessing!' Then I got him over a great many little
places, and he quite took to it and went on uncommonly well. _He was a
nice gentleman to teach--he'd just do anything you told him. That's the
way to get on!_"
In another place Dick says, "A quick and safe jumper always goes from
hind-legs to fore-legs. I never rode a steeple-chase yet but I steadied
my horse on to his hind-legs twenty yards from his fence, and I was
always over and away before the rushers. Lots of the young riders think
horses can jump anything if they can only drive them at it fast enough.
They force them too much at their fences. If you don't feel your
horse's mouth, you can tell nothing about him. You hold him, he can
make a second effort; if you drop him, he won't."
Now, Dick does not mean by this that you are to go slowly at every kind
of fence. He tells you that he "sent him with some powder at a
bullfinch;" but whatever the pace, you so hold your horse in the last
fifty yards up to the taking-off point, that instead of spreading
himself out all abroad at every stroke, he feels the bit and gets his
hind-legs well under him. If you stand to see Jim Mason or Tom Oliver in
the hunting-field going at water, even at what they call "forty miles an
hour," you will find the stride of their horses a measured beat, and
while they spur and urge them they collect them. This is the art no book
can teach; _but it can teach that it ought to be learned_. Thousands of
falls have been caused by a common and most absurd phrase, which is
constantly repeated in every description of the leaps of a great race or
run. "_He took his horse by the head and lifted him_," &c.
No man in the world ever lifted a horse over anything--it is a
mechanical impossibility--but a horseman of the first order can at a
critical moment so rouse a horse, and so accurately place his head and
hind-legs in the right position, that he can make an extraordinary
effort and achieve a miraculous leap. This in metaphorical language is
called lifting a horse, because, to a bye-stander, it looks like it. But
when a novice, or even an average horseman, attempts this sort of _tour
de force_, he only worries his horse, and, ten to one, throws him into
the fence. Those who are wise will content themselves with keeping a
horse well in hand until he is about to rise for his effort, and to
collecting him the moment he lands. The right hold brings his hind legs
under him; too hard a pull brings him into the ditch, if there is one.
By holding your hands with the reins in each rather wide apart as you
come towards your fence, and closing them and dropping them near his
withers as he rises, you give him room to extend himself; and if you
stretch your arms as he descends, you have him in hand. But the perfect
hunter, as long as he is fresh, does his work perfectly, so the less you
meddle with him when he is rising the better.
Young sportsmen generally err by being too bold and too fast. Instead of
studying the art in the way the best men out perform, they are hiding
their nervousness by going full speed at everything, or trying to rival
the whips in daring. Any hard-headed fool can ride boldly. To go well
when hounds are running hard--to save your horse as much as possible
while keeping well forward, for the end, the difficult part of a long
run--these are the acts a good sportsman seeks to acquire by observation
and experience.
For this reason young sportsmen should commence their studies with
harriers, where the runs are usually circling and a good deal of hunting
is done slowly. If a young fellow can ride well in a close, enclosed
hedge, bank, and ditch country, with occasional practice at stiles and
gates, pluck will carry him through a flying country, if properly
mounted.
Any horse that is formed for jumping, with good loins, hocks, and
thighs, can be taught to jump timber; but it is madness to ride at a
gate or a stile with a doubtful horse. A deer always slacks his pace to
a trot to jump a wall or park rails, and it is better to slacken to a
trot or canter where there is no ditch on either side to be cleared,
unless you expect a fall, and then go fast, that your horse may not
tumble on you.
A rushing horse is generally a dangerous fencer; but it is a trick that
can only be cured in private lessons, and it is more dangerous to try to
make a rusher go slowly than to let him have his own way.
The great error of young beginners is to select young horses under their
weight.
It was the saying of a Judge of the old school, that all kinds of wine
were good, but the best wine of all was "two bottles of port!" In the
same style, one may venture to say that all kinds of hunting are good,
but that the best of all is fox-hunting, in a grass scent-holding
country, divided into large fields, with fences that may be taken in the
stride of a thorough-bred, and coverts that comprise good gorse and open
woods--that is, for men of the weight, with the nerve, and with the
horses that can shine in such a country. But it is not given to all to
have or retain the nerve or to afford a stud of the style of horses
required for going across the best part of Leicestershire and
Northamptonshire. In this world, the way to be happy is to put up with
what you can get. The majority of my readers will be obliged to ride
with the hounds that happen to live nearest their dwelling; it is only
given to the few to be able to choose their hunting country and change
their stud whenever the maggot bites them. After hard brain-work and
gray hairs have told on the pulse, or when the opening of the
nursery-door has almost shut the stable, a couple of hours or so once a
week may be made pleasant and profitable on a thirty-pound hack for the
quartogenarian, whom time has not handicapped with weight for age. I can
say, from the experience of many years, that as long as you are under
twelve stone, you may enjoy very good sport with such packs as the
Bramham Moor in Yorkshire, the Brocklesby in Lincolnshire, the
Heythrope in Oxfordshire, the Berkley or the Beaufort in
Gloucestershire, without any enormous outlay for horses, for the simple
reason that the average runs do not present the difficulties of grass
countries, where farmers are obliged to make strong fences and deep
ditches to keep the bullocks they fatten within bounds. Good-looking
little horses, clever jumpers, equal to moderate weights, are to be had,
by a man who has not too much money, at moderate prices; but the sixteen
hands, well-bred flyer, that can gallop and go straight in such
countries as the Vale of Aylesbury, is an expensive luxury. Of course I
am speaking of sound horses. There is scarcely ever a remarkable run in
which some well-ridden screw does not figure in the first flight among
the two hundred guinea nags.
When an old sportsman of my acquaintance heard any of the
thousand-and-one tales of extraordinary runs with fox-hounds, "after
dinner," he used to ask--"Were any of the boys or ponies up at the
kill?" If the answer was "Yes," he would say, "Then it was not a severe
thing;" and he was generally right. Men of moderate means had better
choose a hunting county where the boys can live with the hounds.
"As to harriers, the people who sneer at them are ludicrously ignorant
of the history of modern fox-hunting, which is altogether founded on the
experience and maxims of hare-hunters. The two oldest fox-hound packs in
England--the Brocklesby and the Cheshire--were originally formed for
hare-hunting. The best book ever written on hounds and hunting, a
text-book to every master of hounds to this day, is by Beckford, who
learned all he knew as master of a pack of harriers.
"The great Meynell and Warwickshire Corbett both entered their young
hounds to hare, a practice which cannot, however, be approved. The late
Parson Froude, in North Devon, than whom a keener sportsman never
holloaed to hounds, and the breeder of one of the best packs for showing
sport ever seen, hunted hare, fox, deer, and even polecats, sooner than
not keep his darlings doing something; and, while his hounds would
puzzle out the faintest scent, there were among the leaders several
that, with admirable dash, jumped every gate, disdaining to creep. Some
of this stock are still hunting on Exmoor. There are at present several
very good M.F.H. who began with hare-hounds.
"The intense pretentious snobbishness of the age has something to do
with the mysterious manner in which many men, blushing, own that they
have been out with harriers. In the first place, as a rule, harriers are
slow; although there are days when, with a stout, well-fed,
straight-running hare, the best men will have enough to do to keep their
place in the field: over the dinner-table that is always an easy task;
but in this fast, competitive age, the man who can contrive to stick on
a good horse can show in front without having the least idea of the
meaning of hunting. To such, harriers afford no amusement. Then again,
harrier packs are of all degrees, from the perfection of the Blackmoor
Vale, the Brookside, and some Devon or Welsh packs with unpronounceable
names, down to the little scratch packs of six or seven couple kept
among jovial farmers in out-of-the-way places, or for the amusement of
Sheffield cutlers running afoot. The same failing that makes a
considerable class reverently worship an alderman or a city baronet
until they can get on speaking terms with a peer, leads others to boast
of fox-hunting when the Brighton harriers are more than they can
comfortably manage."
The greater number of what are called harriers now-a-days are dwarf
fox-hounds, or partake largely of fox-hound blood.
If Leicestershire is the county for "swells," Devonshire is the county
of sportsmen; for although there is very little riding to hounds as
compared with the midland counties, there is a great deal of hunting.
Every village has its little pack; every man, woman, and child, from the
highest to the humblest, takes an interest in the sport; and the science
of hunting is better understood than in the hard-riding, horse-dealing
counties. To produce a finished fox-hunter, I would have him commence
his studies in Devonshire, and finish his practice in Northamptonshire.
On the whole, I should say that a student of the noble science, whose
early education has been neglected, cannot do better than go through a
course of fox-hunting near Oxford, in the winter vacation, where plenty
of perfect hunters are to be hired, and hounds meet within easy reach of
the University City, six days in the week, hunting over a country where
you may usually be with them at the finish without doing anything
desperate, if content to come in with the ruck, the ponies, and the old
farmers; or where, if so inclined, you may have more than an average
number of fast and furious runs, and study the admirable style of some
of the best horsemen in the world among the Oxfordshire and Berkshire
squires.
Stag-hunting from a cart is a pursuit very generally contemned in print,
and very ardently followed by many hundred hard-riding gentlemen every
hunting day in the year. A man who can ride up to stag-hounds on a
straight running day must have a perfect hunter, in first-rate
condition, and be, in the strongest sense of the term, "a horseman." But
it wants the uncertainties which give so great a charm to fox-hunting,
where there are any foxes. There is no find, and no finish; and the
checks generally consist in whipping off the too eager hounds. As a
compensation, when the deer does not run cunning, or along roads, the
pace is tremendous.
The Surrey stag-hounds, in the season of 1857, had some runs with the
Ketton Hind equal in every respect to the best fox-hunts on record; for
she repeatedly beat them, was loose in the woods for days, was drawn for
like a wild deer, and then, with a burning scent, ran clear away from
the hounds, while the hounds ran away from the horsemen. But, according
to the usual order of the day, the deer begins in a cart, and ends in a
barn.
But stag-hunting may be defended as the very best mode of obtaining a
constitutional gallop for those whose time is too valuable to be
expended in looking for a fox. It is suited to punctual, commercial,
military, or political duties. You may read your letters, dictate
replies, breakfast deliberately, order your dinner, and invite a party
to discuss it, and set off to hunt with the Queen's, the Baron's, or any
other stag-hound pack within reach of rail, almost certain of two hours'
galloping, and a return by the train you fixed in the morning.
* * * * *
There are a few hints to which pupils in the art of hunting may do well
to attend.
"Don't go into the field until you can sit a horse over any reasonable
fence. But practice at real fences, for at the leaping-bar only the
rudiments of fencing are to be learned by either man or horse. The
hunting-field is not the place for practising the rudiments of the art.
Buy a perfect hunter; no matter how blemished or how ugly, so that he
has legs, eyes, and wind to carry him and his rider across the country.
It is essential that one of the two should perfectly understand the
business in hand. Have nothing to say to a puller, a rusher, or a
kicker, even if you fancy you are competent; a colt should only be
ridden by a man who is paid to risk his bones. An amateur endangers
himself, his neighbours, and the pack, by attempting rough-riding. The
best plan for a man of moderate means--those who can afford to spend
hundreds on experiments can pick and choose in the best stables--is to
hire a hack hunter; and, if he suits, buy him, to teach you how to go.
"Never take a jump when an open gate or gap is handy, unless the hounds
are going fast. Don't attempt to show in front, unless you feel you can
keep there. Beginners, who try to make a display, even if lucky at
first, are sure to make some horrid blunder. Go slowly at your fences,
except water and wide ditches, and don't pull at the curb when your
horse is rising. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the horse will
be better without your assistance than with it. Don't wear spurs until
you are quite sure that you won't spur at the wrong time. Never lose
your temper with your horse, and never strike him with the whip when
going at a fence; it is almost sure to make him swerve. Pick out the
firmest ground; hold your horse together across ploughed land; if you
want a pilot, choose not a scarlet and cap, but some well-mounted old
farmer, who has not got a horse to sell: if he has, ten to one but he
leads you into grief.
"In going from cover to cover, keep in the same field as the hounds,
unless you know the country--then you can't be left behind without a
struggle. To keep in the same field as the hounds when they are running,
is more than any man can undertake to do. Make your commencement in an
easy country, and defer trying the pasture counties until you are sure
of yourself and your horse.
"If you should have a cold-scenting day, and any first-rate steeplechase
rider be in the field, breaking in a young one, watch him; you may learn
more from seeing what he does, than from hours of advice, or pages of
reading.
"Above all, hold your tongue until you have learnt your lesson; and talk
neither of your triumphs nor your failures. Any fool can boast; and
though to ride boldly and with judgment is very pleasant, there is
nothing for a gentleman to be specially proud of, considering that two
hundred huntsmen, or whips, do it better than most gentlemen every
hunting day in the season."
When you meet the pack with a strange horse, don't go near it until sure
that he will not kick at hounds, as some ill-educated horses will do.
Before the hounds begin to draw, you may get some useful information as
to a strange country from a talkative farmer.
When hounds are drawing a large cover, and when you cannot see them,
keep down wind, so as to hear the huntsman, who, in large woodlands,
must keep on cheering his hounds. When a fox breaks cover near you, or
you think he does, don't be in a hurry to give the "Tally-a-e-o!" for,
in the first place, if you are not experienced and quick-eyed, it may
not be a fox at all, but a dog, or a hare. The mistake is common to
people who are always in a hurry, and equally annoying to the huntsman
and the blunderer; and, in the next place, if you halloo too soon, ten
to one the fox heads back into cover. When he is well away through the
hedge of a good-sized field, halloo, at the same time raising your cap,
"Tally-o aw-ay-o-o!" giving each syllable very slowly, and with your
mouth well open; for this is the way to be heard a long distance. Do
this once or twice, and then be quiet for a short spell, and be ready to
tell the huntsman, when he comes up, in a few sentences, exactly which
way the fox is gone. If the fox makes a short bolt, and returns, it is
"Tally-o _back_!" with the "_back_" loud and clear. If the fox crosses
the side of a wood when the hounds are at check, the cry should be
"Tally-o over!"
_Foxes._--Study the change in the appearance of the fox between the
beginning and the end of a run; a fresh fox slips away with his brush
straight, whisking it with an air of defiance now and then; a beaten fox
looks dark, hangs his brush, and arches his back as he labours along.
With the hounds well away, it is a great point to get a good start; so
while they are running in cover, cast your eyes over the boundary-fence,
and make up your mind where you will take it: a big jump at starting is
better than thrusting with a crowd in a gap or gateway--always presuming
that you can depend on your horse.
Dismiss the moment you start two ideas which are the bane of sport,
jealousy of what others are doing, and conceit of what you are doing
yourself; keep your eyes on the pack, on your horse's ears, and the next
fence, instead of burning to beat Thompson, or hoping that Brown saw how
cleverly you got over that rasper!
Acquire an eye to hounds, that is, learn to detect the moment when the
leading hound turns right or left, or, losing the scent, checks, or,
catching it breast high, races away mute, "dropping his stem as straight
as a tobacco-pipe."
By thus studying the leading hounds instead of racing against your
neighbours' horses, you see how they turn, save many an angle, and are
ready to pull up the moment the hounds throw up their heads.
Never let your anxiety to be forward induce you to press upon the hounds
when they are hunting; nothing makes a huntsman more angry, or spoils
sport more.
Set the example of getting out of the way when the huntsman, all
anxious, comes trotting back through a narrow road to make his cast
after a check.
Attention to these hints, which are familiar to every old sportsman,
will tend to make a young one successful and popular.
When you are well up, and hounds come to a check, instead of beginning
to relate how wonderfully the bay horse or the gray mare carried you,
notice every point that may help the huntsman to make his cast--sheep,
cattle, magpies, and the exact point where the scent began to fail. It
is observation that makes a true sportsman.
As soon as the run has ended, begin to pay attention to the condition of
your horse, whose spirit may have carried him further than his strength
warranted; it is to be presumed, that you have eased him at every check
by turning his nose to the wind, and if a heavy man, by dismounting on
every safe opportunity.
The first thing is to let him have just enough water to wash his mouth
out without chilling him. The next to feed him--the horse has a small
stomach, and requires food often.
At the first roadside inn or cottage get a quart of oatmeal or
wheat-flour _boiled_ in half a pail of water--mere soaking the raw
oatmeal is not sufficient. I have found the water of boiled linseed used
for cattle answer well with a tired horse. In cases of serious distress
a pint of wine or glass of spirits mixed with water may be administered
advantageously; to decide on the propriety of bleeding requires some
veterinary experience; quite as many horses as men have been killed by
bleeding when stimulants would have answered better.
With respect to the treatment of hunters on their return, I can do
nothing better than quote the directions of that capital sportsman and
horseman, Scrutator, in "Horses and Hounds."
"When a horse returns to the stable, either after hunting or a journey,
the first thing to be done to him is to take off the bridle, but to let
the saddle _remain on_ for some time at least, merely loosening the
girths. The head and ears are first to be rubbed dry, either with a wisp
of hay or a cloth, and then by the hand, until the ears are warm and
comfortable; this will occupy only a few minutes, and the horse can then
have his bit of hay or feed of corn, having previously, if returned from
hunting, or from a long journey, despatched his bucket of thick gruel:
the process of washing his legs may now be going on, whilst he is
discussing his feed of corn in peace; as each leg is washed, it should
be wrapped round with a flannel or serge bandage, and by the time the
four legs are done with, the horse will have finished his feed of corn.
A little hay may then be given, which will occupy his attention while
the rubbing his body is proceeded with. I am a great advocate for plenty
of dry clean wheat straw for this purpose; and a good groom, with a
large wisp in each hand, will in a very short space of time make a
clean sweep of all outward dirt and wet. It cannot, however, be properly
done without a great deal of _elbow grease_ as well, of which the
present generation are inclined to be very chary. When the body of the
horse is dry, a large loose rug should be thrown over him, and the legs
then attended to, and rubbed thoroughly dry by the hand; I know the
usual practice with idle and knowing grooms is to let the bandages
remain on until the legs become dry of themselves, but I also know that
there cannot be a worse practice; for horses' legs, after hunting, the
large knee-bucket should be used, with plenty of warm water, which will
sooth the sinews after such violent exertion, and allay any irritation
proceeding from cuts and thorns. The system of bandaging horses' legs,
and letting them remain in this state for hours, must tend to relax the
sinews; such practices have never gained favour with me, but I have
heard salt and water and vinegar highly extolled by some, with which the
bandages are to be kept constantly wet, as tending to strengthen the
sinews and keep them cool; if, however, used too long or allowed to
become dry, I conceive more injury likely to result from their use than
benefit. It is generally known that those who have recourse to belts for
support in riding, cannot do well without them afterwards, and although
often advised to try these extra aids, I never availed myself of them;
cold water is the best strengthener either to man or horse, and a
thorough good dry rubbing afterwards. After severe walking exercise, the
benefit of immersing the feet in warm water for a short time must be
fully appreciated by all who have tried it; but I very much question if
any man would feel himself stronger upon his legs the next morning, by
having them bandaged with hot flannels during the night. Very much may
be done by the judicious use of hot and cold water--in fact, more than
by half the prescriptions in general use; but the proper time must be
attended to as well, for its application. When a horse has had a long
and severe day's work, he should not be harassed more than is absolutely
necessary, by grooming and dressing; the chief business should be to get
him dry and comfortable as quickly as possible, and when that has been
effected, a slight wisping over with a dry cloth will be sufficient for
that night."
The expenses of horse-keep vary according to the knowledge of the master
and the honesty of his groom; but what the expense ought to be may be
calculated from the fact that horses in first-rate condition cannot
consume more than thirteen quarters of oats and two and a half tons of
hay in a year; that is, as to oats, from three to six quarterns a day,
according to the work they are doing. But in some stables, horses are
supposed to eat a bushel a day every day in the year: there is no doubt
that the surplus is converted into beer or gin.
"Upon our return from hunting, every horse had his bucket of thick gruel
directly he came into the stable, and a little hay to eat whilst he was
being cleaned. We never gave any corn until just before littering down,
the last thing at night. The horse's legs were plunged into a high
bucket of warm water, and if dirty, soft soap was used. The first leg
being washed, was sponged as dry as possible, and then bandaged with
thick woollen bandages until the others were washed; the bandages were
then _removed entirely_, and the legs rubbed by hand until quite dry. We
used the best old white potato oats, weighing usually 45 lbs. per
bushel, but so _few beans_ that a quarter lasted us _a season_. The oats
were bruised, and a little sweet hay chaff mixed with them. We also
gave our horses a few carrots the day after hunting, to cool their
bodies, or a bran mash or two. They were never coddled up in hoods or
half a dozen rugs at night, but a single blanket sufficed, which was
never so tight but that you might thrust your hand easily under it. This
was a thing I always looked to myself, when paying a visit to the stable
the last thing at night. A tried horse should have everything
comfortable about him, but carefully avoid any tight bandage round the
body. In over-reaches or wounds, warm water was our first application,
and plenty of it, to clean all dirt or grit from the wound; then Fryer's
balsam and brandy with a clean linen bandage. Our usual allowance of
corn to each horse per diem was four quarterns, but more if they
required it, and from 14 lbs. to 16 lbs. of hay, eight of which were
given at night, at racking-up time, about eight o'clock. Our hours of
feeding were about five in the morning, a feed of corn, bruised, with a
little hay chaff; the horse then went to exercise. At eight o'clock, 4
lbs. of hay; twelve o'clock, feed of corn; two o'clock, 2 lbs. of hay;
four o'clock, corn; at six o'clock, another feed of corn, with chaff;
and at eight o'clock, 8 lbs. of hay; water they could always drink when
they wanted it."
I cannot conclude these hints on hunting more appropriately than by
quoting another of the songs of the Squire of Arley Hall, Honorary
Laureate of the Tarporley Hunt Club:--
"A WORD ERE WE START.
"The order of march and due regulation
That guide us in warfare we need in the chase;
Huntsman and whips, each his own proper station--
Horse, hound, and fox, each his own proper place.
"The fox takes precedence of all from the cover;
The horse is the animal purposely bred,
_After_ the pack to be ridden, not _over_--
Good hounds are not reared to be knocked on the head.
"Buckskin's the only wear fit for the saddle;
Hats for Hyde Park, but a cap for the chase;
In tops of black leather let fishermen paddle,
The calves of a fox-hunter white ones encase.
"If your horse be well bred and in blooming condition,
Both up to the country and up to your weight,
Oh! then give the reins to your youthful ambition,
Sit down in the saddle and keep his head straight.
"Eager and emulous only, not spiteful,
Grudging no friend, though ourselves he may beat;
Just enough danger to make sport delightful,
Toil just sufficient to make slumbers sweet!"