HUNTER, a name given to a horse qualified to carry a person in the chase. The shape of the horse designed for this service, should be strong and well knit together, as the jockeys express it. Irregular or unequal shapes in these creatures are always a token of weakness. The inequalities in shape which show a horse improper for the chase, are the having a large head and a small neck, a large leg and a small foot, and the like. The head of the hunter should indeed always be large, but the neck should also be thick and strong to support it. The head should be lean, the nostrils wide, and the windpipe straight.
The hunter, in order to his behaving well in the field, ought to have great care and indulgence in the stable: he ought to have as much rest and quiet as may be, to be kept well supplied with good meat, clean litter, and fresh water by him; he should be often dressed, and suffered to sleep as much as he pleases. He should be so fed, that his dung may be rather soft than hard, and it must be of a bright and clean colour. All this may be easily managed by the continual observance and change of his food, as occasion requires. After his usual scourings he should have exercises and mashes of sweet malt, or bread and beans; or wheat and beans mixed together, are to be his best food, and beans and oats his worst.
Some very great sportsmen are for keeping their horses out at grass all the buck-hunting season, never taking them up into the stable at all, but allowing them in the field as much oats with their grass as they will eat. The horse may be thus rid three days in the week for the whole season, and never damaged by it, nor ever showing any marks of harm afterwards.
The whole shape of a horse intended for a hunter, should be this: The ears should be small, open, and pricked; or though they be somewhat long, yet if they stand up erect and hold like those of a fox, it is a sign of toughness or hardiness. The forehead should be long and broad, not flat, or, as it is usually termed, mare-faced, but rising in the middle like that of a hare; the feather should be placed above the eye, the contrary being thought by some to threaten blindness. The eyes should be full, large, and bright; the nostrils not only large, but looking red and fresh within; for an open and fresh nostril is always esteemed a sign of a good wind. The mouth should be large, deep in the wicks, and hairy. The wind-pipe should be large, and appear straight when he bridles his head; for if, on the contrary, it bends like a bow on his bridling, it is not
formed for a free passage of the breath. This defect in a horse is expressed among the dealers by the phrase cock-throppled. The head should be so set on to the neck, that a space may be felt between the neck and the chine; when there is no such space, the horse is said to be bull-necked; and this is not only a blemish in the beauty of the horse, but it also occasions his wind not to be so good. The crest should be strong, firm, and well risen; the neck should be straight and firm, not loose and pliant; the breast should be strong and broad, the ribs round like a barrel, the fillets large, the buttocks rather oval than broad, the legs clean, flat, and straight; and, finally, the mane and bushy, the tail being counted a mark of dulness. When a hunter is thus chosen, and has been taught such obedience, that he will readily answer to the rider's signals both of the bridle and hand, the voice, the calf of the leg, and the spurs; that he knows how to make his way forward, and has gained a true temper of mouth, and a right placing of his head, and has learned to stop and to turn readily, if his age be sufficiently advanced, he is ready for the field. It is a rule with all staunch sportsmen, that no horse should be used in hunting till he is full five years old; some will hunt them at four, but the horse at this time is not come up to his true strength and courage, and will not only fail at every tough trial, but will be subject to strains and accidents of that kind, much more than if he were to be kept another year first, when his strength would be more confirmed.
When the hunter is five years old, he may be put to grass from the middle of May till Bartholomew-tide; for the weather between these is so hot, that it will be very proper to spare him from work. At Bartholomew-tide, the strength of the grass beginning to be nipped by frosts and cold dews, so that it is apt to engender crudities in the horse, he should be taken up while his coat is yet smooth and sleek, and put into the stable. When he is first brought home, he should be put in some secure and spacious place, where he may evacuate his body by degrees, and be brought not all at once to the warm keeping; the next night he may be stabled up. It is a general rule with many not to clothe and stable up their horses till two or three days after they are taken from grass, and others who put them in the stable after the first night, yet will not dress and clothe them till three or four days afterward; but all this, except the keeping the horse one day in a large and cool place, is needless caution.
There is a general practice among the grooms, in many places, of giving their hunters wheat-straw as soon as they take them up from grass. They say they do this to take up their bellies; but there seems much reason to disapprove of this. The change is very violent, and the nature of the straw so heating and drying, that there seems great reason to fear that the alluring nature of it would be prejudicial, more than is at first perceived. It is always found that the dung is hard after this food, and is voided with pain and difficulty, which is in general very wrong for this sort of horse. It is better therefore to avoid this straw-feeding, and to depend upon moderate airing, warm clothing, and good old hay and old corn, than to have recourse to any thing of this kind.
When the horse has evacuated all his graft, and has been properly shod, and the shoes have had time to settle to his feet, he may be ridden abroad, and treated in this manner: the groom ought to visit him early in the morning, at five o'clock in the long days, and at six in the short ones; he must then clean out the stable, and feel the horse's neck, flank, and belly, to find the state of his health. If the flank feels soft and flabby, there is a necessity of good diet to harden it, otherwise any great exercise will occasion swellings and goutiness in the heels. After this examination, a handful or two of good old oats, well sifted, should be given him; this will make him have more inclination to water, and will also make the water fit better on his stomach, than if he drank fasting. After this he is to be tied up and dressed. If in the doing of this he opens his mouth, as if he would bite, or attempts to kick at the person, it is a proof that the teeth of the currycomb are too sharp, and must be filed blunter. If after this he continues the same tricks, it is through wantonness, and he should be corrected for it with the whip. The intent of currying being only to raise the dust, this is to be brushed off afterwards with a horse-tail nailed to a handle, or any other light brush. Then he is to be rubbed down with the brush, and dusted a second time; he should then be rubbed over with a wet hand, and all the loose hairs, and whatever foulness there is, should be picked off. When this is done, and he is wiped dry as at first, a large saddle-cloth is to be put on, reaching down to the spurring place; then the saddle is to be put on, and a cloth thrown over it that he may not take cold: then rub down his legs, and pick his feet with an iron picker, and let the mane and tail be combed with a wet mane-comb. Lastly, it is a custom to spurt some beer in his mouth just before the leading him out of the stable. He should then be mounted, and walked a mile at least to some running water, and there watered; but he must only be suffered to take about half his water at one drinking.
It is the custom of many to gallop the horse at a violent rate as soon as he comes out of the water; but this is extremely wrong for many reasons. It endangers the breaking a horse's wind more than any other practice, and often has been the occasion of bursting very good horses. It uses them also to the disagreeable trick we find in many horses, of running away as soon as ever they come out of the water: and with some it makes them averse to drinking, so that they will rather endure thirst, and hurt themselves greatly by it, than bring on the violent exercise which they remember always follows it. The better way is to walk him a little after he is out of the water, then put him to a gentle gallop for a little while, and after this to bring him to the water again. This should be done three or four times, till he will not drink any more. If there is a hilly place near the watering place, it is always well to ride up to it; if otherwise, any place is to be chosen where there is free air and sun. That the creature may enjoy the benefit of this, he is not to be galloped, but walked about in this place an hour, and then taken home to the stable. The pleasure the horse himself takes in these airings when well managed is very evident; for he will gape, yawn, and shrug up his body: and in these, whenever he would stand still to stale,
dung, or listen to any noise, he is not to be hindered from it, but encouraged in every thing of this kind.
The advantages of these airings are very evident; they purify the blood, teach the creature how to make his breathing agree with the rest of the motions of his body, and give him an appetite to his food, which hunters and racers that are kept stabled up are otherwise very apt to lose. On returning from airing, the litter of the stable should be fresh, and by stirring this and whistling, he will be brought to stale. Then he is to be led to his stall, and tied up, and again carefully rubbed down; then he should be covered with a linen cloth next his body, and a canvas one over that, made to fit him, and reaching down to his legs. This, as the duke of Newcastle observes, is a custom which we learned of the Turks, who are of all people the most nice and careful of their horses. Over this covering there should be put a body-cloth of six or eight straps; this keeps his belly in shape, and does not hurt him. This clothing will be sufficient while the weather is not very sharp; but in severe seasons, when the hair begins to rise and start in the uncovered parts, a woollen cloth is to be added, and this will always prove fully sufficient.
Different horses, and different seasons, make variety of the degree of clothing necessary; but there always is an obvious rule to point out the necessary changes, the roughness of the coat being a mark of the want of clothing, and the smoothness of it a proof that the clothing is sufficient. Therefore if at any time the hair is found to start, it is a notice that some farther clothing is to be added.
If the horse sweat much in the night, it is a sign that he is over fed and wants exercise; this therefore is easily remedied. An hour or more after the horse is come in from his airing, the groom should give him a wisp of clean hay, making him eat it out of his hand; after this let the manger be well cleaned out, and a quarter of oats clean sifted be given him. If he eats up this with an appetite, he should have more given him; but if he is slow and indifferent about it, he must have no more. The business is to give him enough, but not to cloy him with food.
If the horse gets flesh too fast on this home feeding, he is not to be stinted to prevent it, but only his exercise increased; this will take down his flesh, and at the same time give him strength and wind. After the feeding in the morning is over the stable is to be shut up, only leaving him a little hay on his litter. He need be no more looked at till one o'clock, and then only rubbed down, and left again to the time of his evening watering, which is four o'clock in the summer and three in the winter. When he has been watered, he must be kept out an hour or two, or more if necessary, and then taken home and rubbed as after the morning watering. Then he is to have a feed of corn at six o'clock, and another at nine at night; and being then cleaned, and his litter put in order, and hay enough left for the night, he is to be left till morning. This is the direction for one day, and in this manner he is to be treated every day for a fortnight; at the end of which time his flesh will be so hardened, his wind so improved, and his mouth so quickened, and his gallop brought to so good a stroke, that he will be fit to be put to moderate hunting. During the time that he is
Hunter. used to hunting, he must be ordered on his days of rest exactly as he is directed for the fortnight when he is in preparation; but as his exercise is now greatly increased, he must be allowed a more strengthening food, mixing some old split beans at every feeding with his oats.
And if this is not found to be sufficient, the following bread must be given: let two pecks of old beans and one peck of wheat be ground together, and made into an indifferently fine meal; then knead it into dough with some warm water and a good quantity of yeast; let it lie a time that it may rise and swell, which will make the bread the lighter; then make it into loaves of a peck each, and let it be baked in a slow oven, that it may be thoroughly done without being burnt; when it is taken out of the oven, it must be set bottom upwards to cool; when it is one day old the crust is to be chipped off, and the crumb given him for food. When this is ready, he should have some of it at least once in the day: but it is not to be made the only food, but some feeds are to be of oats alone, some of oats and this bread, and some of oats and beans mixed together. The making a variety in this manner being the best of all methods for keeping up the appetite, which is often apt to fail.
The day before the horse is to hunt, he must have no beans, because they are hard of digestion, but only some oats with this bread: or if he will be brought to eat the bread alone, that will be best of all. His evening feed should on this day be somewhat earlier than usual; and after this he is only to have a wisp of hay out of the groom's hand till he return from hunting.