The horse and the hound by Nimrod Author:Nimrod Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE HUNTER. DIFFICULTY OF PRESCRIBING PRECISE RULES FOB BREEDING GENERAL DIRECTIONS TO BE FOLLOWED TRAINING OF COLTS FORM SIZE COURAGE ACTION LEAPING PURCH... more »ASE OF A HUNTER. There is no description of horse which could be applied to so many purposes, racing exeepted, as the powerful English Hunter. Setting aside his own peculiar services in the field, he is lit to carry a man on the road, on the field of battle, and he answers for every kind of draught. Indeed, we are inclined to believe no horse would equal him in ploughing; and as for road-work on harness, either slow or fast, nothing could touch him, in a carriage properly suited to his powers. It is, however, no less true than singular, that out of a hundred sportsmen assembled at the meeting of a pack of fox-hounds, not half-a-dozen would be found mounted on horses which they themselves had bred. This arises from two causes,—first, the greater part of them have not patience to await the arrival of a young horse at his best, and consequently sell the few they do breed, without giving them a fair trial; and, secondly, such has, of late years, been the prejudice against riding mares in the hunting field, that they have been chiefly left in the hands of farmers and yeomen, who are become the principal breeders of English hunters. Neither do hunters find their road direct from the breeder to the studs of noblemen or gentlemen. They generally go through the hands of an inferior country dealer, from whom they are bought by the principal London and country dealers, and sold by them to the sportsmen of the various hunts. There are, of course, exceptions to this proceeding. A great proportion of English yeomen and farmers are very excellent horsemen, and, as such, having the capability of making their young horses into hunter...« less