[Sidenote: Colt-breaking the best lesson for riding.]

The very best lesson for a horseman, young or old, is colt-breaking; and if in the attempt the young horseman fails to do the colt justice, he will at least do him less injury than the country colt-breaker, or the generality of grooms.

I shall detail the plan of an old horseman; though, perchance, its want of "dresses, scenery, and decoration" may offend, my chief implements being a stick, some string, and some carrots.

I have always said that the colt is half broken when he will come to your whistle or call in the field, and eat carrots out of your hand; and that he is quite broken when you have got the head-stall on him.

[Sidenote: The head-stall.]

The colt should wear a head-stall from the earliest days, and be held by the head while he is rubbed and caressed. If this has been neglected, get him into a loose box; take the front off the head-stall, described page 125. Do not (as is the common error in this and in bridling) face the colt, and hold out the head-stall with both hands, as if you wished to frighten him; but keep the head-stall in your left hand, caress the colt with your right hand, and, with your right shoulder to his left shoulder, pass the right hand under his jaws on to the front part of his head. Bring the left hand up to the right, and, with a hand on each cheek-strap, pass the top over the ears on to the neck, if you can. Fasten the throat-lash tight enough to prevent its being rubbed over the ears. Tie a piece of cord, a yard long, to the off side, D, of the head-stall; pass the cord through the near side, D. Accustom the colt to see and to be held by this. It is very powerful, as it forms a slip knot round his nose, and prevents his pulling with the top of his head; and it keeps the two cheek-straps back, which otherwise might injure the colt's eyes. When he is used to the short cord, tie a long knotted cord to it. Use gloves when you first take the colt out, and place yourself so that if he bolts you may pull him sideways gradually into a circle.

[Sidenote: The snaffle.]

To get him to lead, place him between you and a fence; keep abreast of his shoulder, and show the stick towards his croupe. When he is subjected to the cord, take a snaffle-bit with a piece of string to each eye (what is called a T is best), tie it to the off side, D, hold the nose-band with the right hand, take the snaffle with the left, induce him to open his mouth by passing the thumb between his lips on to the bars (part bare of teeth), place the snaffle in his mouth, and tie it to the near side, D. If you have any difficulty, a long string may be used to the near side of the snaffle, and passed through the D. If the colt runs back you still hold him with the snaffle under the jaws. When bridled tie a piece of string from eye to eye of the snaffle, so as to hang under the chin; fasten the long cord to this and lead him by it, and use him to be held by this chin-strap. By the common method, he is never held by the mouth till he is mounted.

Next tie a piece of cord round his girthing place, the two ends on the ridge of his back. Make a rein of string and tie it with these ends just tight enough to prevent the colt grazing; you may then pick grass and give it to him, whistling at the same time. He will soon follow you loose, play by your side, leap fences, and come to your whistle like a dog.

To accustom the colt to be tied by the head, pass the long cord over a gate, and slacken and tighten as may be required.

Ask leave of the colt to hang your tackle in his hovel; or if he lives in a field, lay it in the hedge to be ready whenever you can spare time "to go for a walk" with him.

For these lessons, and as far as possible for all lessons, the law should be dulcia sunto; but after teaching your child its alphabet in ginger-bread, the time must come when he must go to school.

[Sidenote: Longeing.]

The simplest act of obedience is longeing. In longeing you should walk a circle inside the colt's circle. The long stick should be constantly held up towards his croupe, to keep him on, but ready to be shown towards his head to keep him out. When you stop, and lower the stick, the colt comes in for a piece of carrot. The long cord should never be tight. If the colt's head is pulled in and his croupe driven out of the circle, mental sulks and muscular mischief must ensue. Nothing so surely generates spavins, curbs, and thorough-pins. When skilful, you may make the colt change without stopping, or longe a figure of 8. This may be done, even without the long cord, by the centripetal force of carrots and the centrifugal force of the stick. When this is done in the open field it looks like mesmerism or magic. When in this way you have made the colt thoroughly to love, honour, and obey you, the saddling, mounting, and riding, follow almost of course.

[Sidenote: Saddling.]

[Sidenote: Mounting.]

Without stirrups, and with only one girth turned over the seat, place the pummel of the saddle on your right shoulder, and your right hand under its cantle, caress the colt with your left hand, and do not attempt to put the saddle on him till your left shoulder touches his. When girthed tie the string surcingle over the saddle; besides holding the reins, it now prevents the flaps flying up. When used to this, use him to the stirrups. Mount in a loose box with three girths, the head tied loosely to the saddle and a second snaffle bridle. Fill your pockets with tares or hay and feed him from his back. Out of doors mount while the colt is browsing a hedge. Quiet riding must do the rest, the main thing to keep the colt straight on, or to turn him, being the stick shown instantly on either side by the turn of the wrist.

Thus far the practice of colt-breaking; and in this way the colt will be very easily tackled: I do not expect so easily to tackle his rider, but I will try.

[Sidenote: Sermon to the colt-breaker.]

[Sidenote: The noblest horse resists the most.]

[Sidenote: Has a right to resist.]

As Lord Pembroke remarks in his admirable treatise, his hand is the best who gets his horse to do what he wishes with the least force, whose indications are so clear that his horse cannot mistake them, and whose gentleness and fearlessness alike induce obedience to them. The noblest animal will obey such a rider, as surely as he will disregard the poltroon, or rebel against the savage. I say the noblest, because it is ever the noblest among them which rebel the most. For the dominion of man over the horse is an usurped dominion. And in riding a colt, or a restive horse, we should never forget that he has by nature the right to resist; and that, at least, as far as he can judge, we have not the right to insist.

When the stag is taken in the toils, the hunter feels neither surprise nor anger at his struggles and alarm; and indeed he would be very unreasonable were he to chastise the poor animal on account of them. But there is no more reason in nature why a horse should submit, without resistance, to be ridden, than the stag to be slain—why the horse should give up his liberty to us, than the stag his life. In both cases our "wish is father to the deed." And if our arrogance insinuates that a bountiful Nature created these animals simply for our service, assuredly bountiful Nature left them in ignorance of the fact. And it is to the sportsman and the colt-breaker that we must apply, if we wish to know whose victims are the most willing. Not to the cockney casuist, whose knowledge of the stag is confined to his venison, and who never trusts himself on the horse till it has been "long trained, in shackles, to procession pace." If he did, he would find that the unfettered four-year-old shows precisely the same alarm and resistance to the halter as the stag does to the toils; and in breaking horses, the thing to be aimed at, next to the power of indicating our wishes, is the power of winning obedience to those wishes. These, and these only, are the two things to be aimed at, from the putting the first halter on the colt, to his performance of the pirouette renversee au galop—which is perhaps the most perfect trial and triumph of the most exquisitely finished horsemanship, and in which the horse must exert every faculty of his mind to discover, and every muscle of his body to execute, the wishes of his rider.

[Sidenote: The colt needs no suppling.]

[Sidenote: He wants to know your meaning.]

[Sidenote: And that he must obey.]

It is a vulgar error—an abuse of terms—the mere jargon of jockeyship, to say that the horse needs suppling to perform this, or any other air of the manege, or anything else that man can make him do; all that he wants is to be made acquainted with the wishes of his rider, and inspired with the desire to execute them. For example, among the innumerable antics which I have seen fresh young troopers go through, when being led to and from the farrier's shop, I have seen them perform this very air, the pirouette renversee au galop to the right, round the man who leads them; I have seen them perform the figure perfectly, with the exception that, instead of the right nostril leading, the head and neck have been straight on the diameter of the circle. At the same time detacher l'aiguillette, and mingle courbettes, ballotades, and even cabrioles with it,—combinations which La Broue, the Duke of Newcastle, De la Gueriniere, or Pellier would scarcely dream of. This a horse will do in the gaiety of his heart, and without requiring any suppling; take the same horse into the school, follow him with the whip, and try to make him do it, he will think you a most unreasonable person; he will by no means be able to discover your meaning, and will, if you press him, finish by being exceedingly sulky. Mount him, and try to indicate your wishes to him through the medium of your hands, legs, and whip, or if you prefer the terms, to give him their aid and support. I will venture to say that you will be nearer two years than one, before you can get him to do what he has not only done but done for his own delight. In the mean time, if during his two years of suppling you have never given him a false indication or ever forced him, he will be no more stiff than when he first began to be suppled. But if, as a million riders out of a million and one would have done, you have been in the constant habit of doing both, the horse will long ago have become as stiff as a piece of wood. Is it to be supposed that the best suppled manege horse is more supple than the colt at the foot of his dam? Can any one who has watched his pranks think so? How often have I been told by a rider to observe how supple his horse's neck had become! That he could now get his horse's head round to his knee, whereas he could not at first accomplish more than to see his horse's eye. If the same horse, loose, wished to scratch his shoulder or his ribs, would he not forthwith do it with his teeth?

When a cabriolet or cart is turned in a narrow street or road, the horse is forced to make half a pirouette, without any questions being asked as to his capabilities or suppleness; and the rein being pulled strongest on one side, the whip applied on the other, the shafts to prevent his turning short, and with evident reason why he cannot go a-head, he sees what is required, and does it without difficulty; but the same horse will not do the same mounted, in the middle of a grass-field, with nothing but his rider's aids to bias him, or to indicate what is required of him. Why? either because he can't understand your aids, or you can't enforce obedience to them: these will be the reasons, not his want of suppleness.

The great thing in horsemanship is to get your horse to be of your party—not only to obey, but to obey willingly. For this reason a young horse cannot be begun with too early, and his lessons cannot be too gradually progressive. The great use of longeing is, not that it supples your horse—it is a farce to suppose that—but that, next to leading, it is the easiest act of obedience which you can exact from him. In this way it is an admirable lesson.

[Sidenote: The leaping-bar.]

Placing the colt between the pillars of the stall is admirable as a lesson of submission and obedience; by degrees he may be even cleaned there. The brush acts as the urging indication; the reins inform him that he is not to advance; the result is that he collects himself to the bit. Here, then, the common theory would make him to be taken up and collected, not between the hands and legs, not "dans la main et dans les talons," but dans the sides of the stall and dans the horse brush. It is precisely the same as putting the horse between the pillars in a manege, which is an admirable explanatory practice to a horse. With the whip in skilful hands, the sides of the stall give infinite advantage over the pillars in the manege; both teach the horse the same lesson, namely, that when urged up to the bit—that is, when urged and retained at the same time—these contradictory indications mean that he is required to collect himself. Anything which facilitates the understanding of this bit of information is of infinite value; for the colt, like the satyr in the fable, is apt to kick against this blowing hot and blowing cold at the same time. Mount the colt, and try these opposite indications; he will do anything but obey them, anything but collect himself. If you insist, he will resist. He will end in overt acts of rebellion, or at least in dogged sulks; and that from not understanding, or not choosing to obey your aids, not from want of suppleness. Let art supple the temper and understanding of the colt, and leave nature to supple his limbs. By holding the colt's head against a wall by the chin-strap, he may be made to pass sideways to either hand by showing him the whip. He should also be taught to rein back; this is best done in a narrow gangway. The leaping-bar is a good exercise of obedience. The bar itself should be only six feet long; the posts which support it should be four feet six inches high; the side-rails thirty feet in length, and they should slope down to three feet; they should rest on the tops of the posts, and be flush with them, and perfectly smooth, so that the long cord may pass freely over them without catching. The colt should walk half way up the gangway, thence a slow trot. Pass the reins of the snaffle through the left eye of the snaffle, and fasten the long cord to them. Hold the right rein close to where it passes through the eye, it will clasp the lower jaw like a slip-knot and give you great power. All over-fresh horses should be led in this way; without it a horse will pull with the top of his head with force sufficient to beat any man. Keep the bar low, or even on the ground, as long as the horse is nervous.

The whole affair of colt-breaking is an affair of patience, you cannot have too much forbearance: put off the evil day of force. Forgive him seventy times seven times a-day, and be assured that what does not come to-day will to-morrow. The grand thing is to get rid of dogged sulks and coltishness; of that wayward, swerving, hesitating gait, which says, "here's my foot, and there's my foot;" or, "there is a lion in the street, I cannot go forth." This is the besetting sin of colts; and this it is which, on the turf, gives so great an advantage to a young horse to have another to make play, or cut out the running for him. For this indisposition to go freely forward results as well from their seeing no necessity to give up their will to yours, as from their incapacity to perceive and obey the indications of their rider without swerving, shifting the leg, &c., and additional labour to themselves. All this is spared to the young horse by the follow-my-leader system.

Everything should be resorted to to avoid alarm on the colt's side and force on the man's, and gradually to induce familiarity and cheerful obedience—to reconcile him to the melancholy change from gregarious liberty to a solitary stall and a state of slavery. I should say that he is the best colt-breaker who soonest inspires him with the animus eundi—who soonest gets him to go freely straight forward—who soonest, and with least force, gets the colt without company five miles along the road from home. Violence never did this yet; but violence increases his reluctance, and makes it last ten times longer. Indeed, it causes the colt to stiffen and defend himself, and this never is got rid of. It is true that by force you may make him your sullen slave, but that is not the object; the object is to make him your willing subject. Above all things, do not be perpetually playing the wolf to him; deal in rewards where it is possible, and in punishment only where it cannot be avoided. Be assured that the system will answer.

Crede mihi, res est ingeniosa dare.

It is, no doubt, our duty to create the happiness and to prevent the misery of every living thing; but with our horse this is also a matter of policy. The colt should be caressed, rubbed, and spoken to kindly. He should be fed from the hand with anything he may fancy, such as carrot, or apple, or sugar, and be made to come for it when whistled to or called by name.

"Quis expedivit Psittaco suum chaire?... Venter."

[Sidenote: Fetch and carry.]

On an unlittered part of the stable, with the horse loose, throw pieces of carrot on the floor; he will learn to watch your hand like a dog. Then tie a piece of carrot to a piece of stick. When he lifts this push a piece of carrot between his lips where there are no teeth, and take the stick from his mouth. He will soon learn to pick up your stick, whip, glove, or handkerchief, and to bring it in exchange for the reward; or when mounted, will put his head back to place it in your hand.

Stand on the outside of a door which opens towards you. Show the horse carrots through the opening: he will push the door open to get the carrot. By always repeating the word "door," he will soon open or shut a door at command, or a gate, even when mounted.

These may be "foolish things to all the wise," but nothing is useless which familiarises the horse, which increases the confidence and intimacy between him and his rider, or which teaches him to look to man for the indications of his will, and to obey them, whether from fear, interest, or attachment.



CHAPTER XI.

THE HORSE AND HIS STABLE.

Condition depends on food, work, and warmth.—So does the difference between the breeds of horses.—The terseness of the Arab is the result of hard food.—So is that of our thorough-bred horse.—Different breeds result from different natural conditions.—Crossing is only necessary where natural conditions are against you.—We do not attend enough to warmth.—We should get fine winter coats by warmth instead of singeing.—No fear of cold from fine coats.—The foot should be stopped with clay.—The sore ridge.—Stable breastplate.—The head-stall.—Never physic, bleed, blister, or fire.—Food for condition.—Rest for strains.—Nature for wounds.—Miles for shoeing.—The horse should have water always by him.—And should stand loose.—No galloping on hard ground, either by master or man.—He who cripples the horse kills him.

[Sidenote: Condition depends on food, work, warmth.]

For perfect health and condition three things are necessary, good food, work, warmth. For appearance a fourth may be added, cleaning. To suppose cleaning necessary for health is nonsense. Do you clean your sheep?—the stags in your park?—or the horses young and old in the breeding stud? But, speaking liberally, a horse which is not worked cannot be clean and a horse which is worked and clothed cannot be dirty. A horse cannot be clothed too heavily summer or winter short of perspiring.

[Sidenote: So does the difference between breeds of horses.]

But it is not only that the present passing condition of the horse depends solely on food, work, and warmth, but the permanent structure and stature of the horse depend on them; that is, the difference between what are called different breeds of horses depends solely on these three things.

[Sidenote: The Arab the result of hard food.]

The Arab has a legend that his horse came from the stable of King Solomon. From the book of Kings it appears that Solomon was a great horse dealer. He imported them largely from Egypt, and he supplied certain kings with them. The merchandise which he received from Arabia is enumerated, and though it is not stated that he supplied horses in part payment for this merchandise, it is not improbable that he did so. Speaking liberally, in Arabia the sole food of the horse is barley and straw; and the terseness of structure of the Arab may be said to be the result of three thousand years of hard food, if we reckon only from the modern horse-keeper King Solomon. Fuerant autem in Egypto semper praestantissimi equi. And, shades of Bunsen! how many thousand years of hard food shall we add to the account for our horses' Egyptian ancestry? Moses and Miriam sang their dirge on the shore of the Red Sea, in the reign of a mediaeval Pharaoh, but their "early progenitors," as Mr. Darwin would phrase it, might have enjoyed the barley of the ancient King Menes. To hard food we must add early work, for the Arab is worked at two years old.

[Sidenote: So is our thorough-bred horse.]

Our thorough-bred horse, the descendant of the Arab, has been bred under the same natural conditions somewhat improved; that is, he has had better hard food in unlimited quantity, he is earlier trained, the goodness of both sire and dam are proved to an ounce, and performance only is bred from. What is the consequence? In Evelyn's days Arabs and barbs raced at Newmarket. In later days, in the give and take plates there, winners are recorded of thirteen hands high, and the size of a stud horse of fourteen hands was advertised. Now, if a horse is under sixteen hands his size is not mentioned, and all the world is our customer at L5000 or L6000 a horse. And if more people had the skill to ride him, the merits of the thorough-bred horse as a hunter would be better known; though, indeed, under any circumstances, it is but the sweepings of the training stable which descends to the hunting field or private life.

[Sidenote: All breeds result from natural conditions.]

The first axiom of the breeder is—est in equis patrum virtus—"Like produces like." But the second axiom is, "The goodness of the horse goes in at his mouth." The moral is, that like produces like only under like natural conditions. Turn out all the winners of the last ten years to breed on Dartmoor or in Shetland; what would be the betting about a colt or a filly so bred for the Derby or Oaks? The qualities of the race-horse—the accumulation of thousands of years—are lost in the first generation. Continue to breed him under these conditions, and the finest horse in the world, or that the world ever saw, becomes a Dartmoor or Shetland pony, worth L5 instead of L5000. Such are the changes worked by natural conditions; though with Mr. Darwin they count for nothing, or for next to nothing.

In the permanent fat pastures of the temperate and insular climes, the horse is built up to eighteen hands high, with a width and weight infinitely more than proportionate to his height, if we compare him to the southern horse. In the arid south, by no contrivance of man or "natural selection" can a horse of weight be produced; though you may breed the terse horse of the south in the north by keeping him on terse food.

[Sidenote: Crossing not necessary.]

Crossing is only good where you wish to breed animals against natural conditions, as heavy horses on terse food, or Leicester sheep on the downs, or small Alderney cows on rich pastures. Then, the more the breed is crossed by animals bred under favourable natural conditions the better. No horse is so bred in-and-in as our thorough-bred horse and the Arab, and, of course, all pure breeds must be bred in-and-in.

[Sidenote: We do not attend enough to warmth.]

The above effects of food and work are evident and well understood. But we do not sufficiently attend to warmth. We see that if the finest-coated Arab or thorough-bred horse is turned out year after year, he will get a winter coat as thick as a Shetland pony. But besides this, nature thickens his skin; the hide of the southern horse sells higher than that of the northern horse, because it is thinner. Change the skin of a horse for that of a rhinoceros, will he race or hunt as well?

[Sidenote: Warmth instead of singeing.]

Mr. Darwin does not seem to be aware that the horse changes his coat! or that there is any difference between his summer and winter coat! or that the new coat of the same individual comes thick directly he is exposed to cold. Fine winter coats should be got by clothing and warmth, not by singeing and cold. Starvation itself is not more terrible than cold. Nature comes to the rescue of the out-door horse, but frightful enormities result from singeing horses in the winter, and leaving them to shiver in the stall inadequately clothed, to say nothing of the frightful figures which result.

[Sidenote: No fear of cold from fine coats.]

Fear not your horse suffering from cold because he is stripped to work. Do not labourers strip to work? If a horse had a coat thick enough to keep him warm when at rest in winter, he could not hunt in this without being sweated to death any more than he could with four or five blankets on him.

[Sidenote: Stop foot with clay.]

Fire and water are equally disastrous to the horse's skin. Allow neither singeing nor washing above the hoof, and even this only for appearance. For there is no more reason for washing the horse's foot when he is kept in a stable, than there is when he is kept in a paddock. But there are good reasons for keeping his foot full of dirt in the form of clay in the stable. Without it he fills his foot with the contents of the stall, which the shoe holds there. Now, which is worst for the foot, dirt or dung? Nothing can be more injurious to the frog than this.

But, alas! all is right, even with the master, provided that there is not a speck on the outside insensible horn; and perhaps that is oiled and blacked (!) when the horse is brought out, while inside, the soft frog is left night and day soaked and saturated with the most frightful horrors. Hence the most fetid thrushes, and hence the contracted heel; for the contracted heel is the consequence, not the cause of the rotted frog.

The clay should not be mixed up with any of the horrors which grooms are so fond of. Besides defending the frog from the highly injurious juices of the stall this gives a natural support to the interior of the foot which the artificial shoe deprives it of.

[Sidenote: The sore ridge.]

Every joint of the backbone or spinal bone is surmounted by a spine. These are sharp and topped with gristle, and will not support weight, still less attrition. Hence the necessity of the wooden tree of a saddle, and even of a terret-pad to bridge the ridge. The old plan of fastening the horse's clothing, taken from the Persians, was by rolling a long strip loosely round and round him; hence our name of roller for the stable surcingle. This avoided injury to the ridge: the objection is the trouble. The bridge or channel of our roller is never effective, and every stabled horse has a sore ridge. This is a great calamity to him as well as to his master.

The play of the ribs in breathing saws the sore; he is disinclined to lie down because the roller is tightened by this position. The groom puts his hand towards the ridge; the ears go back and a leg is lifted. The horse gets a kick in the stomach or a blow with the fist, and becomes shy in the stall as well as vicious. In cleaning him underneath, the groom rests his hand on the sore ridge and the horse dashes his teeth against the wall, and lashes out from pain; he becomes shy to saddle, shy to girth, shy to mount, and he hogs his back, and perhaps plunges when you are up.

[Sidenote: Stable breastplate.]

I have used two remedies; first, a more efficient bridge. Let the pads of the channel be deep and steep towards each other and die off on the side from each other, set them wide apart and have the channel clear. The common error is to stuff the channel, which increases the evil. Next a loose roller, but this involves the necessity of a breast-girth to prevent the roller going back under the flank. If the breast-girth is loose it falls below the breast and is burst by the legs of the horse in getting up. If it is tight it pulls the roller on to the rise of the withers. I have used, and I recommend a breastplate on the principle of a hunting breastplate. The bearing should be only from the top of the neck to the lower part of the roller; a long upper strap to prevent it falling forward when the head is down, should take off and on the channel by a slip loop. The lower strap is also taken off and on the roller with a slip loop. The breast-piece buckles or ties on the near shoulder. When taken off, it pulls out of the lower strap, and remains attached to the channel by the upper strap; the lower strap remains attached to the lower part of the roller.

I wish my pupil would make a model with my favourite bit of string, and then call the saddler to his aid. He may have it of scarlet, if he is fond of ornament, of webbing bis Afro murice tincta, or of scarlet and gold if he likes.

The roller must keep the cloths forward; if they are fastened tight across the chest, the horse bursts them in getting up or in putting his head down.

[Sidenote: The head-stall.]

The head-stall should have a buckle on each cheek-strap; the throat-lash should be sewed to the top, and should have a buckle on each side. If the horse slips his head-stall, take the throat-lash out of the front, and you may buckle it almost as tight as a neck-strap, which is the safest of all fastenings. The objection is that, when a horse has to raise heavy logs in the stall for each mouthful of hay, the strap wears his mane. For this reason a front is used to the head-stall; it however then wears the horse's head, and is the origin of what is called pole-evil; the bone of the nose is often worn through by the nose-band, forming abscesses inside the nostrils. Small horses and ponies are particularly liable to this, in getting their hay from high racks. These are reasons for horses standing loose where this is possible. A quarter of a century ago I had the honour to arrange the head-stalls of the 2nd Life Guards as above, and I am proud to see them still in use.

[Sidenote: Never physic, blister, or fire.]

On no occasion and on no persuasion give your horse physic, or bleed him, or blister him, or fire him, or let the blacksmith have anything to do with any part of him which is more sensible than the callous crust of his hoof.

[Sidenote: Food for condition. Rest for strains. Nature for wounds.]

Condition depends on food, not physic. Rest is the cure for sprains and strains. Nature cures wounds unless prevented by art. Nature stops the bleeding by the glue of the blood coagulating about the wound; staunching with cloths wipes this off and promotes the bleeding. Lint assists, but when Nature has formed a plaister over a wound it should not be interfered with or washed; leave it to come off of itself. Where great discharge ensues wash it off sound parts, and grease them to prevent the skin coming off. Don't believe in what is called "proud flesh." The granulations of new flesh are always called so, and burnt off as fast as they grow by corrosive sublimate or "oils as'll cut a broomstick in two."

[Sidenote: Miles for shoeing.]

As a brother officer of the 2nd Life Guards has published a perfect book on shoeing, and as he did me the honour to dedicate it to me, I have only to say that on that subject I am completely "Miles's boy."

[Sidenote: Water always by the horse.]

About a quarter of a century ago I recommended in print that all horses should have water by them in the stall: it is now so universally the practice, that I need not here repeat the reasons for it. I have not heard of any horse drinking till he burst, though all grooms assured me that all stabled horses would do so.

It is distending food, not drink, which forms the large carcase. Food takes long to digest, but it is astonishing how quickly what the horse drinks is absorbed. The late Mr. Field having a horse condemned to die, kept him two days without water, gave him two buckets, and killed him five minutes after. There was not a drop of water in his stomach.

[Sidenote: The horse should stand loose.]

A horse should have a loose standing if possible; if he must be tied in a stall it should be flat. A horse cannot stand up hill without muscular exertion, and the toe constantly up, and the heel constantly down, induces ruinous distress to the back sinews.

[Sidenote: No galloping on hard ground.]

[Sidenote: He who cripples the horse kills him.]

Do not let your groom gallop your hunter on the hard ground in autumn; and my last word shall be a petition on this subject to master as well as man—to deprecate a piece of inhumanity practised, indeed, as much by ladies as by gentlemen—the riding the horse fast on hard ground. I pray them to consider that horses do not die of old age, but that they are killed because they become crippled, and that he who cripples them is guilty of their death, not he who pulls the trigger. The practice is as unhorsemanlike as it is inhuman. It is true that money will replace the poor slaves as you use them up, and if occasion requires it they must, alas! be used up. But in my opinion, nothing but a case of life and death can justify the deed. If the ground is hard and even, a collected canter may be allowed; but if hard and uneven, a moderate trot at most. One hour's gallop on such ground would do the soundest horse irremediable mischief. Those who boast of having gone such a distance in such a time, on the ground supposed, show ignorance or inhumanity. Such feats require cruelty only, not courage. Nay, they are performed most commonly by the very horsemen who are too cowardly or too unskilful to dare to trust their horse with his foot on the elastic turf, or to stand with him the chances of the hunting-field. And such is the inconsistency of human nature, that they are performed by persons who would shudder at the sight of the bleeding flank of the race-horse, or who would lay down with disgust, and some expression of maudlin, morbid humanity, the truly interesting narrative of that most intrepid and enduring of all gallopers, Sir Francis Head. But compare the cases. In the case of the race-horse, his skin is wounded to urge him to his utmost exertion for a few seconds, from which in a few minutes he is perfectly recovered, and ready, nay eager, to start again. In the case of the wild horse of the Pampas, he is urged for two, three, or perhaps five hours, to the utmost distress for wind, as well as muscular fatigue. He is enlarged, and in a day or two he is precisely the same as if he had never been ridden. But in the case of the English road-rider, though no spur is used, unfair advantage is taken of the horse's impetuous freedom of nature, his sinews are strained, his joints permanently stiffened, he is deprived at once and for ever of his elasticity and action, and brought prematurely a cripple to the grave.

BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.



APRIL, 1861.

A LIST OF BOOKS

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ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF TENNYSON'S PRINCESS. WITH MACLISE'S ILLUSTRATIONS.

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THE PRINCESS; A MEDLEY.

BY ALFRED TENNYSON, ESQ., D.C.L., POET LAUREATE.

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TENNYSON'S POEMS.

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GREENWOOD'S (COL. GEORGE) HINTS ON HORSEMANSHIP TO A NEPHEW AND NIECE; OR, COMMON SENSE AND COMMON ERRORS IN COMMON RIDING. A new, revised, and Illustrated Edition. The wood engravings, photographed from life, are illustrative of the management of the reins in accordance with the principles enunciated in the work. One volume, sm. 8vo. (Just published.) Price 6s.

DYCE'S SHAKESPEARE.

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THE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.

THE TEXT REVISED BY THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE.

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BY SAMUEL SHARPE.

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HAYDN'S DICTIONARY OF DATES.

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HAYDN'S DICTIONARY OF DATES.

RELATING TO ALL AGES AND NATIONS; FOR UNIVERSAL REFERENCE;

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WORKS BY THE LATE THOMAS HOOD.

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BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.



Transcriber's Note

The following errors were corrected:

Page Error fn. 16-+ dachtylos changed to daktylos 33 resiliance changed to resilience Ads p. 6 Wordsworth s changed to Wordsworth's

The following words had inconsistent spelling and hyphenation:

breastplate / breast-plate Gueriniere / Gueriniere headstall / head-stall manege / manege mouthpiece / mouth-piece noseband / nose-band

THE END