The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-15
RAISING FOX HUNTERS.
The Breeding of Young Horses Down in
 Virginia.

1
 Washington Star.
 "The fox hunting season is on in Virginia and the winter sport promises to be especially good" said s. G. Ra- | mer, of Warrenton. You know we raise lots of hunters in our section. and to watch their evolution from birth is really an interesting study. | "Go in the spring to any section from which any of the noted hunters come and you will see on the roads many mare hauling loads of corn and wood with a young foal trotting beside the wagon. He is cunning of | course, as all young animals are, but | if you have a trained eye you will see more than that--the fine muzzle the short back, the we'll built legs, and the quality that indicates his kingly breeding. The mare Is rough; she is often pulled out of shape by hard work but her points are good. Go back the following winter and you will see the same colt, big and I awkward, with d coat that more resem- | bles a collie dog than the horse to which we are accustomed, standing un- protected in a bitter wind, feeding with the cattle on fodder tossed from wagon into the snow. So he grows to a three year-old. weathering win | ter's blasts. and is then a hardy, gen tie. intelligent youngster. If the owner be a sporting farmer the colt is taken out fox hunting. On the rough hillstdes and wooded noun tain slopes where hounds follow the willy red fox, the youngster learns to be sure footed and clever at his jumps But this kind of education seldom makes a finished hunter. The farm CTS rarely ride fast at their fences laadTnar ho{, horses over high places.
 "The colts best hope is to be bought by some regular hunting man. He Is then given better care. gets his daily exercise. has his long coat clipped and fin few months from an awkward, rough, heavy animal is transformed into a sleek. graceful, proud young creature.
 But. after all. three-year-o is a baby. Few hunting men will handle a horse before he is four. and little is expected of him until he Is five. {.
 "One can readily see that the price of a good hunter must of necessity be high. It costs. say. $50 to bring him to the end of his first year and $30 each for the next two years. Then, when kept in condition, shod, fed oats and clipped and blanketed. with the at tention required from his groom, etc., f. will cost probably SID year to keep hIrn. This is allowing for his being pastured only in summer.
 These are the prices in Virginia, and in the North 1t would cost double that price.
 Tt costs. therefore, about $200 to bring a colt to five years of age, and this is allowing nothing for possible accident. disease or death. Young foals are often kicked by other horses and killed, gored by steers, choked on seeding apples. die of distemper or are seriously injured in q hundred ways that spoil their sale.
 The man who trains hunter gives two years of his time to the work. He risks his life and limbs and at any time during that period the colt may go wrong, be injured and made useless for life.
 One can easily realize that it is use less to expect to get a sound and well schooled hunter under $500; a heavy weight can seldom be got for under S1OOO. while S2,OOo Is not. considered high price.
 Many horses can jump, but more than this is necessary Many a horse that can with ease clear the bars al six feet or more could not go half that number Of miles over hunting coun- try In which the highest timber meas.