The management and treatment of the horse in the stable, field, and ...

In the Stable, Field, and on the Road. 67
saddle, it should be led over with a man on its back for
the first time or two, until it thoroughly understands
what is wanted of it by its rider. Never put a funky
man on a young horse : he is sure to sp oil it and make it
refuse its fences ; it is oftener the fault of the man than
the horse that it does not jump. You may often hear in
the field gentlemen say, "I can't get this brute to jump;"
they are generally those that can gallop through a line
of gates or down a lane, but cannot get their hearts high
enough to take a sheep hurdle. They are like a wellknown
old sportsman, near Melton Mowbray, who used
to hunt up to his eightieth year, and when he came to a
flight of rails, would say to his groom, " Tom, knock
the top rail off." When that was done, he would say,
"Knock another off, and I'll go over if I break my neck.''
These gentlemen somehow or other seem to always
get good horses, and when they have them they have
not pluck to ride them. Hunters, from the nature of
their work, are liable to meet with many injuries from
which other horses are exempt, among which are thorns,
overreach, blows from rails, and striking one leg against
the other when galloping through heavy ground. This
is often the cause of splint, one of the most troublesome
kinds ot lameness, for the horse is often lame with splint,
and being in its incipient form, it does not set up
enough local inflammation to enable the unskilful to
find out its seat, and many horses are said to be lame in
the shoulder when it is an incipient splint below the
knee that causes the mischief. Some cases have come
under my observation, in which, although the animal
has not been able to put its foot to the ground, the