H O R S E.
THE Horse is a distinct genus belonging to the order of Pachydermata, Cuv., and in himself the most serviceable of all quadruped animals, and ranks with the greyhound as the swiftest of those brought under the dominion of man. Notwithstanding these high qualifications, ancient history informs us that in the primitive ages of the world the ass was used in preference to him, not only as a mere beast of burthen, but for the purpose of conveying from place to place persons of the highest distinction. This, however, may be satisfactorily accounted for. Previously to the art of horsemanship being known, the ass, a superior race of animal perhaps to that generally found in Europe, was more easily managed than the horse, and better suited to the kind of food usually met with for his support. He was, in fact, found to answer every purpose of horses, until mankind increased in numbers and in wealth, when the complicated interests that were the result brought their services into use, and they were trained to the art of war. But another reason may be given for the late introduction of horses. Their use was interdicted by the Almighty in the early ages of the world; first, lest his favourite people, the Israelites, should be led to idolatry by carrying on commerce with Egypt; secondly, by their dependence on a well-appointed cavalry, they might cease to trust in the promised aid of Jehovah; and, thirdly, that they might not be tempted to extend their dominion by such means, and then, by mixing with idolatrous nations, cease in time to be that distinct and separate people which it was His intention they should be, and without which the prophecies relative to the Messiah could not be fully accomplished. Thus, in the Book of Psalms,
the horse commonly appears only on the side of the enemies of God's people; and so entirely unaccustomed to the management of him were the Israelites at the period of their signal defeat of the Philistines and other idolatrous nations, that David, their commander and king, caused the greater part of the horses of the cavalry prisoners to be cut down. In the reign of Solomon, however, a cavalry force was established, but to no great extent.
In the infant state of all nations, indeed, we can readily account for the restrictive use of horses. A great deal of land that might be applied to the production of human food is requisite for their maintenance in all countries; and, in hot and sterile ones, the camel answered better, and was found ready at hand. It is true they were used in the armies of the ancient Greeks and Romans, which were not considered as complete without them. In Greece they were not so numerous; but in a war with the Italic Gauls the Romans are said to have had no less than 70,000 horse and 700,000 foot to attack their formidable enemies. The army of Xerxes, when reviewed by him at Dorsica, in Thrace, after it had passed the Hellespont, is reported by Herodotus, contemporary with him, to have contained 80,000 horse; but the judicious reader will be inclined to make considerable abatements from the boasted amount of that celebrated but ill-fated expedition, resting, as it does, entirely on the authority of Grecian writers, who represented facts in the light the most unfavourable to their enemies, and the most glorious to their own gallant countrymen.
As in the scale of excellence the horse ranks first of all animals coming under the denomination of cattle, and, as
Buffon justly says of him, "possesses, along with grandeur of stature, the greatest elegance and proportion of parts of all quadrupeds," it is not a matter of surprise that, as an image of motive vigour, he should have been the subject of the chisel and the pencil of the first artists in the world, or that the description of him by the pen should have been not considered as unworthy the greatest writers of antiquity. But it is only in his native simplicity, in those wild and extensive plains where he was originally produced, that we can form an adequate idea of this noble animal. It is here that he disdains the assistance of man, which only tends to servitude; and it is to a description of his release from this servitude, his regaining his natural liberty, that we are indebted for two of the finest similes of the immortal Greek and Roman epic bards. The return of Paris, with Hector, to the battle of Troy, is thus given in the sixth book of the Iliad:—
"ὃν, ὃ τὸν οἱ ἄριστον ἔσται, ἀκέραιον ἰοὶ φάον,
Δαΐδης ἀπορρήξει θῆϊ πρὶν ἄριστον ἔσται,
Ἐκδὸς ἰοῦσιν ἰοῦσιν ἀπορρήξει,
Κοῖνος ἰοῦσιν ἰοῦσιν ἄριστον ἔσται,
"Ἰδοὺς ἀκέραιον ἰοὶ φάοντες ἀπορρήξει,
Ἐκδὸς ἰοῦσιν ἰοῦσιν ἄριστον ἔσται."
And Virgil is considered to have even exceeded Homer in that splendid passage in the eleventh book of the Aeneid, where Turnus, turning out fully accoutred for the fight, is compared to a horse that has just broken loose from his stall:—
"Qualis, ubi abruptis fugit praecepis vincis,
Tandem liber equus, campoque potitus aperto,
Aut ille in pastus armentaque tendit equarum,
Aut, assuetus aequo perfundi flumine noto,
Emiest, arrectisque fremit cervicibus alte
Luxurians; luduntque jubae per colla, per arma."
It is impossible, at this distance of time, to fix upon the native country of the horse, as he has been found in various forms and of various sizes in every region of the Old World. The difference in size is easily accounted for. The origin of all animals of the same species was doubtless the same in the beginning of time, and it is chiefly climate that has produced the change we perceive in them. Warmth being congenial to his constitution, and cold naturally injurious to him, he is produced in the most perfect form, and in the greatest vigour, when subject to the influence of the one, and not only diminutive, but misshapen and comparatively worthless, when exposed to the evils of the other. Buffon, however, is wrong in making the horse indigenous to Arabia, as is clearly proved by a reference to the Sacred Writings. In the reign of Saul horse-breeding had not yet been introduced into Arabia; for, in a war with some of the Arabian nations, the Israelites got plunder in camels, sheep, and asses, but still no horses. Even at the time when Jerusalem was conquered and first destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, Arabia appears to have been without horses, as the Tyrians brought theirs from Armenia. That the earliest available uses of the active powers of horses was adopted by the Egyptians, the same authority satisfies us; for we read in the third chapter of Genesis that when Joseph carried his father's remains from Egypt to Canaan "there went up with him both chariots and horsemen." About 150 years afterwards, the horse constituted the principal strength of the Egyptian army; Pharaoh having pursued the Israelites with "six hundred chosen chariots, and with all the chariots of Egypt." The earliest period now alluded to was 1650 years before the birth of Christ; and 1450 years before that event, the horse was so far naturalized in Greece that the Olympic Games were instituted, including chariot and horse races.
The origin of the native horse of our own country is now merely a question of historical interest, the discussion of which would not lead to much practical benefit. That experiments, founded on the study of his nature and pro-
perties, which have from time to time been made to improve the breed, and bring the different varieties to the perfection in which we now find them, have succeeded, is best confirmed by the fact of the high estimation in which the horses of Great Britain are held in all parts of the civilized world; and it is not too much to assert that, although the cold, humid, and variable nature of our climate, is by no means favourable to the production of these animals in their very best form, we have, by great care, and by our attention to breeding, high feeding, and good grooming, with consequent development of the muscles, brought them to the highest state of perfection of which their nature is susceptible. They may be classed under the following heads, and treated of individually, viz., the race-horse; the hunter; the hackney, for various purposes; the charger; the troop horse; the coach, chariot, and gig horse; and the draught or cart horse.
Although we may safely pronounce that the native breed of English horses, however esteemed for other purposes, could not race, in the present acceptance of that word, yet it is equally obvious that they formed the parent stock of the renowned English racer. The first step to improve it by a cross with Eastern blood appears to have been taken by James I., who gave the enormous sum (in those days) of £500 for an Arab stallion, which, however, the Duke of Newcastle, in his work on horsemanship (great authority at that time), wrote down on account, chiefly, of his comparatively diminutive size. At the Restoration, however, there appears to have been a tolerably good breed of horses in England, which Charles II. improved by an importation of Barbs and Turks, whose blood was engrafted on the original stock, already very considerably ameliorated by the services of a stallion called Place's White Turk (imported by Oliver Cromwell's Master of the Horse, who bore that name), and afterwards by those of the Helmsley Turk, followed by Fairfax's Morocco Barb. The change was at this time so visible, that the Lord Harleigh of that day expressed his fears lest it might be carried to such an extreme as to extirpate the strong and useful horse, which, perhaps, the majority of his countrymen were well satisfied with before. In the latter end of Queen Anne's reign, however, the first great trump turned up to secure future success. This was a stallion called Darley's Arabian, purchased in the Levant by a Yorkshire merchant of that name, although without any real attestation of his pedigree or country. The prejudice against Arabians and other eastern horses, the effect of the Duke of Newcastle's anathema against them, having now for the most part subsided, a good deal of their blood had been infused into the mares of that day, when another stallion, whose services were still more signal, accidentally made his appearance. We allude to the Godolphin Arabian, as he was called, purchased out of a cart in Paris, and consequently of uncertain caste, but evidently the horse of the desert; who, as will be hereafter shown, may be said to have won the game. Although at first thought so meanly of as only to be used as a teaser, yet, fortunately for the turf, he lived twenty years after his services became notorious by the accident of his being the sire of a capital racer out of a mare which the stallion to which he was teaser refused to cover; and, strange to say, no very superior race-horse has appeared in England for many years that cannot be traced to his blood. The success of this horse was much facilitated by the lucky coincidence of his arrival in England at a critical time; that is to say, when the stock from Darley's horse, and the several Arabs, Barbs, and Turks, together with the royal mares imported by Charles II. had been "crossed" (as the term is) on each other, and had produced mares worthy to be the channel of imparting his own transcendent qualities to posterity. Taking it for
granted, then, that the English race-horse is descended from Arabian, Turkish, and African (Barb) blood; and also taking into consideration the various peculiarities in the form and power of each of those kinds, requiring modification of shape, qualities, and action suited to the purposes for which they were intended, it cannot be denied that a task of no ordinary difficulty was imposed on the English horse-breeders, and that they have executed that task with a masterly hand. If other countries furnished the blood, England has made the race-horse.
With the exception of one Eastern horse, called the Wellesley Arabian, the grandsire of a winner of the Oaks in 1826, also of Dandizette, who ran second for that stake in 1823, and one or two more good runners, the English turf has benefited nothing during the last three-quarters of a century from the importation of foreign blood. The fact is, that having once gotten possession of the essential constitutional parts necessary to form the race-horse (and which will be described hereafter), we ourselves have (by a superior knowledge of the animal and the means of availing ourselves of his capabilities, not only by rearing and training, but by riding him also) brought him to a pitch of excellence which will not admit of further improvement. Superior as is the air of the desert (which is said to be so free from vapours that the brightest steel is not affected with rust if exposed to it for a night) to that of our humid and ever-varying climate, which, especially in Ireland, is said to produce blindness in horses; and propitious as it must be to animals found, as the horse was found, in the greatest perfection when reared in it; yet were the finest Eastern horse that could be procured brought to the starting-post at Newmarket, with the advantage of English training to boot, he would have no chance, at any weight or for any distance, with even a second-rate English race-horse. They will not bear what jockeys term "squeezing" in the last fifty yards of a race, and lose all heart in an instant. The late Mr Atwood was the last racing man who ran half-bred Arabs in England, and he scarcely ever won a race with them from this cause.
Although we have spoken in disparagement of horses of the East as racers, upon the same terms with those of our own breeding, we are willing to allow them the merit of being the parent stock of all our racing blood; as it is quite evident the indigenee of our own country, or of those European ones which approximate to it, would never have produced the sort of race-horse now seen on the British turf. The nature and character, indeed, of the horse of the desert, are peculiarly adapted to an animal which, like the race-horse, is called upon to put its physical powers to the severest test to which nature, aided by art, can submit. In the first place, the Arabian horse possesses a firmness of leg and sinew unequalled by any other in the world. This excellence, which he owes to climate, arises from his having larger muscles and smaller bone than other horses have; muscles and sinews being the sole powers of acting, and on them depend the lasting qualities of an animal going at the top of his speed. Bones being the weight to be lifted, serve only to extend the parts; and it is evident that such as are small but highly condensed, like those of the deer and the horse of the desert, are, by occupying less space and containing less weight, more easily acted upon by muscular force than such as are large and porous, and for a greater duration of time, without fatiguing the acting powers. But the excellence of the Arabian horse, or horse of the desert, does not end with his highly condensed bone, and flat and wiry leg, so much esteemed by the sportsman. All the muscles and fibres of his frame are driven into closer contact than those of any other breed; and, by the membranes and ligaments being composed of a finer and thinner substance, he possesses the rare quality of union of strength with lightness, so essential to the endurance of fatigue in
all quick motions. He thus moves quicker and with more force, by reason of the lightness and solidity of the materials of which his frame is composed; and when to these qualifications are added the peculiar and deer-like elegance of his form, and extraordinary share of muscular power for his inches, he appears to furnish all the requisites of the race-horse on a small scale.
It is worth inquiring into the reason of the improvement of the horse of the desert, and indeed of all the countries of the East, not advancing towards perfection, as that of our own breed has done. No doubt it was intended that we should improve upon animal nature as we improve our own, and nowhere has the attempt been so successful as upon our varieties of domestic cattle; but the horse of the desert now, if he has not retrograded in his good qualities, is the same animal that he was nearly two centuries back. With the exception of the Wellesley Arabian, said to have been bred in Persia (but the assertion is unaccompanied by proof), which measured 15 hands 2 inches high, all the rest that have been imported have been little better than Galloways, which must be attributed to two causes—first, the want of being forced, as our own horses are, in their colthood, by high keep; and, secondly, by adhering too closely to the indigenous breed, or that whose blood is unmixed, by which means it has dwindled. Accurate observers must have noticed that the greater part of the horses brought to this country as Barbs and Arabians have exhibited a palpable deficiency in the points contributing to strength, and the want of general substance is apparent at first sight. It is true that, of late years, their estimation has so diminished in this country that no great pains have been taken to procure stallions of the highest caste, and scarcely any mares have been imported, and several of those sent over have been accompanied by very unsatisfactory pedigrees. We are, however, inclined to think that, as the immediate descendants of such horses are found quite inefficient as race-horses, and but few of the second or third generation have turned up trumps, unless as a rational experiment, the breeding of race-horses from Arabians is at an end.
We have reason to believe, that the best use to be made of Eastern horses, would be for the production of the English hunter, by the best-shaped hunting mares, nearly thorough-bred. By the help of the dam, and our present improved system of keeping young horse-stock, there would be little fear of the produce not coming to a good size, even in the first generation, as it is, for the most part, the property of these horses to beget stock larger than themselves; but by crossing the female produce in the second with our large thorough-bred horses, hunters for heavy weights might be looked for, with every prospect of success. We know that the virtue of the blood, or constituent parts, of the horse that was no racer (Marske, the sire of Eclipse, for example), has produced a racing son, by acquiring proper formation of parts from the dam; and if to the fine form of the English hunter, could be added the firmness of leg and sinew for which the Eastern horse is so conspicuous, but in which the English hunter is too often deficient, in conjunction with the larger muscles, more highly condensed bone, and well-known powers of endurance of the Eastern horse, not omitting his action, which is generally first-rate, but of which a proper judgment could be formed previously to the choice of the stallion, a great improvement upon our present race of hunters would be effected; and all such as were known to be thus bred, would meet a ready sale. It is a well known fact, that some of the most brilliant hunters England ever produced, were got by Arabian stallions; and one, by Lord Clive's Arabian, was decidedly the best horse in Leicestershire, in Mr Meynell's day, over every description of country. He was the property of the late Mr Child, of Kinlet Hall, Shropshire, who is said to have been the first to introduce the present very spirited style of riding
after hounds. Of late years, there have been some very good hunters of this breed in the royal hunt. A powerful Toorkoman stallion would not, we think, fail in getting hunters out of good English mares. That breed is the largest of any of the Eastern horses, owing to being reared on better land.
One word more on the subject of the Eastern horse, as connected with the English turf. Owing to the doubts and uncertainties that hang over the pedigrees and countries of the most celebrated stallions and mares which laid the foundation of our present breed of racers, it is impossible to determine to which individual breed, whether to the Turkish, the Barb, the Arabian, or the Persian, are the greater advantages derived from them to be attributed. They appear to us to be pretty equally divided. To the Byerly Turk we are indebted for the Herod blood (sire of Highflyer); to the Godolphin Arabian, said to be a Barb, for the Matchem blood, the stoutest of any; to the Durley Arabian (the sire of Flying Childers), for the Eclipse blood; and to the Wellesley Arabian, believed to be a Persian horse, to the only real advantage gained to English race-horses, by a foreign cross, in later years. It must, however, be observed, that the most famous horses of the last century, such as Childers, Old Crab, Eclipse, and King Herod, did not appear on the turf before they were five years old; which leads us to suppose that the failure of horses subsequently bred, as they themselves were bred, from Oriental blood, and trained at an early age, may, in great part, be attributed to the fact of the immediate produce of such horses requiring more time to come to maturity, or even to a certain degree of maturity, than those, like our present breed of race-horses, further removed from such blood; and the cause may be attributed to climate. It is reasonable to suppose that the produce of stallions and mares bred in the torrid zone, would come slower to perfection in a damper and colder country than it would have done in its own; and we may infer from this, that in proportion as horses were brought earlier to the post, and races shortened in distance, Eastern blood got into disrepute.
In Great Britain, from the highly cultivated knowledge of the mechanical structure of living bodies, with the junction of best shapes, although but for racing, this knowledge would have been comparatively in its infancy, the horse has arrived at the highest state of perfection of which his nature is capable; and in whatever country and in whatever climate his racing powers are put to the test, he has scarcely found a rival, excepting under very disadvantageous circumstances. It is true his lasting qualities were doubted, and he was challenged to rebut the charge; and the following was the result. On the 4th of August 1825, two second-rate English racers, Sharper and Mina, contended against the most celebrated Cossack horses from the Don, the Black Sea, and the Ural, in a race of the cruel length of 47 miles. At starting, Sharper and Mina ran away with their riders more than a mile, and up a steep hill, when the latter horse broke down, and pulled up. Half the distance was run in an hour and forty minutes. In the last half, only one of the Cossack horses was able to contend with Sharper, who, notwithstanding every foul advantage was taken by changing the weight, and dragging along his opponent by a rope, won his race in gallant style, performing the distance in two hours and forty-eight minutes. At starting, the English horses carried three stone more weight than the Cossacks; and, during the latter half of the race, the one Cossack who remained in it was ridden by a mere child. Every trial over the desert, no matter what the distance, during 1826-55, between English and Eastern horses, has been attended with precisely the same results.
From the great export trade to the Continent of English horses, and particularly those of full blood, occupiers of land cannot turn their attention to a much surer source of profit
than that of breeding horses, provided they go judiciously to work. But, unfortunately for the speculators in this branch of rural economics, too much is left to chance and experiment, and thus horse-breeding becomes absolutely a matter of speculation, instead of a matter of judgment. It is true, those noblemen and gentlemen whose studs have become eminent on the turf cannot be included in this charge, unless they are extremely prejudiced in favour of a particular sire; but even with the benefit of great experience, and various other advantages, the utmost exercise of their judgment is required to ensure even a prospect of success against such a field as they have to contend with. Having said this, we will lay down a few practical rules for breeding and rearing the various kinds of horses now used in Great Britain, commencing, as before stated, with that of the race-horse.
In the first place, it may be observed there has been a great deal of discussion in various publications on sporting, but to very little purpose, on the much agitated question, "What constitutes full blood, or what is termed a thorough-bred horse?" We consider this question as very easily decided; the term "thorough-bred horse" merely implying one that can be traced through the stud-book, by sire and dam, to any Eastern stallion, or to what were called the royal mares, imported by Charles II., as they, together with two or three of the first imported stallions, form the ne plus ultra of all racing pedigrees. As to the assertion, that for a horse to claim the title of thorough-bred it is necessary he should be of pure Oriental descent, it cannot for a moment be supported; as, independently of the fact, that only two mares are stated in the Stud-Book, or elsewhere, on authority, to have been imported into England in the early days of racing, it is well known that the first British race-horses were those of British breed, changed, ameliorated, and at last perfected by the admixture of Eastern blood, and judicious crossing afterwards.
The effect of what is called crossing blood is as follows: The first cross gives one-half, or 50 per cent.; the second 75 per cent.; the third 87½ per cent.; and the fourth 93¾ per cent. In sheep, after this, if the ewes have been properly selected, the difference in the wool between the original stock and the mixed breed is scarcely perceptible; but with the horse, the breeder must not stop here, if he means to produce a race-horse; and a curious fact is stated respecting sheep, on the authority of the Count Veltheim, of Brunswick, an extensive breeder of that species of stock. "It has frequently occurred to me," says he, "that rams, which, after an improvement of four or five descents, have rivalled all the visible qualities of the purest Merinos, when employed in propagation, have got very ordinary lambs, and consequently they are not fit to be used for breeding. On the other hand, a fact may be stated, wherein after a very opposite cross, pure blood, with evident improvement upon the original stock, was procured on the eighth descent. The late Lord Oxford, very celebrated for his greyhounds, finding them degenerating in courage, crossed his best bitches, with a bull-dog. The result was, after several re-crossings with pure blood, that breed of greyhounds for which he was so eminently distinguished. The immediate descendants, however, of the Eastern horses, have, almost without an exception, proved so deficient of late years, that our breeders will no more have recourse to them than the farmer would to the natural oat, which is little better than a weed, to produce a sample that should rival that of his neighbours in the market."
Much speculation has also been indulged in as to the effect of close affinity in breeding the race-horse, or what is called breeding in-and-in; a system which has eminently succeeded in breeding cattle, and also with the late Lord Egremont's racing stud. Beginning with Flying Childers, several of our very best racers have been very closely bred;
Horse.
and it certainly appears reasonable that, as like is said to produce like, if we have high form and superior organization in an own brother and sister, that high form and superior organization would be very likely to be continued to their incestuous produce. In a work called Observations on Breeding for the Turf, published several years back by Nicholas Hankey Smith, who resided a long time among the Arabs, the author gives his opinion that colts bred in-and-in show more blood in their heads, are of better form, and fit to start with fewer sweats than others; but when the breed is continued incestuous for three or four crosses, the animal, he thinks, degenerates. By breeding in-and-in, however, he does not insist upon the necessity of breeding from brother and sister, or putting a mare to her own sire, or the sire to her own dam; but after the first cross, to return to original blood. A proof of the good effect of a close affinity in race-horses may be found in the produce of the dam of George IV.'s favourite mare Maria. By those celebrated stallions, Rubens and Soothsayer, they were worthless; but by Waterloo and Rainbow, grandsons of Sir Peter, and thus combining much of her own blood, they could run to win.
The first and most important point in the choice of a blood-mare for a racing stud, is the soundness of her constitution and limbs; although, of course, it is desirable she should be of good size and shape, with substance. How highly soever she may be bred, and however well she may have run, if she have not a sound frame, she cannot be depended upon to breed racers. If she have never been trained, of course the risk is increased; but, in either case, her form and action must not be overlooked, as it too often is, rendering the breeding of thorough-bred stock a mere matter of chance. Should she have appeared in public, her racing capabilities are to be consulted. For example, if pace (speed) was her best, as the jockies say, a stallion should be selected, who, by the known stoutness of his running is likely to tie her produce to pace, or, in other words, to give them both speed and endurance in a race. Her frame should be roomy, or her produce will be apt to be small, although, it must be admitted, there are exceptions to this rule. She should be of what is termed fashionable blood, for, if she be not, and her produce should come to the hammer, previous to trial, they would prove utterly worthless in the market.
It cannot admit of a doubt, that it is trespassing on the powers of nature to expect a mare, or any other female animal, to nourish her fetus, in embryo, so perfectly during the time she is giving suck, as if she were dry or without milk. Nevertheless, it is customary to put all blood-mares to the horse the ninth day after foaling, and it is almost too much to expect that the owners will let them lie fallow, although they may in some measure resemble the man who cut up his goose to get at the golden egg. During the period of gestation, however, the thorough-bred mare should be highly kept. All animals well fed, produce their species of a superior description to those which are not well fed; and nothing more forcibly shows the beneficial effect of warmth in rearing superior varieties of the horse, than that the half-starved horse of the desert should be as good as he is even now found to be.
In a racing-stud, the period of putting mares to the horse is much earlier in the year than that of any other sort, by reason of their produce being almost always called upon to go into work before they are two years old. In fact, they can scarcely be dropped too soon in the commencement of a new year, where proper accommodations are provided for them. A peep into the seven volumes of the Stud-Book will satisfy inquirers into these matters, that some mares have produced more than twenty colts and fillies, and, in a few instances, a third of them have proved good runners; but, we should be inclined to think that the average would
not exceed six, as the produce of each mare. It sometimes occurs that mares are put into a breeding-stud, when affected by severe lameness in the feet. When this is the case, the operations of neurotomy or unnerving is recommended; as pain, by producing fevers, not only is injurious to the formation of the fetus, but often causes abortion. Bad, putrid smells, or being struck on the nose, also produce abortion in brood mares.
Virgil, in his excellent remarks on breeding horses, tells those of his readers who wished to gain a prize, to look to the dam; and, until of very late years, it was the prevailing opinion of Englishmen, that, in breeding a racer, the mare is more essential than the horse to the production of him, in his highest form, and we know it to have been the notion entertained by the late Earl of Grosvenor, the most extensive, though not perhaps the most successful, breeder of thorough-bred stock England ever saw. The truth of this supposition, however, has not been confirmed by the experience of the last half century, and much more dependence is now placed on the stallion than on the mare. The racing calendar, indeed, clearly proves the fact. Notwithstanding the prodigious number of very highly bred and equally good mares that are every year put to the horse, it is from such as are put to our best stallions that the great winners are generally produced. This can in no other way be accounted for, than by such horses having the faculty of imparting to their progeny the peculiar external and internal formation absolutely essential to the first-rate race-horse; or, if the term "blood" be insisted upon, that certain innate but not preternatural virtue, peculiarly belonging to some horses but not to others, which, when it meets with no opposition from the mare, or, in the language of the stable, when "the cross nicks" by the mare admitting of a junction of good shapes, seldom fails in producing a race-horse, in his very best form. The blood of some mares will only cross successfully with one particular horse, and Phryne has, for instance, not been very successful since Pantaloos died. Emma, Arcot Lass, and Barbelie have each produced a brace of Epsom or St Leger winners to a different horse. Mandane has also a strong claim to rank with the world-famed Prunella, and she foaled Altisidora by Dick Andrews, Lottery by Tramp, and Brutandorf by Blacklock. It is obvious, then, that owners of racing studs should not hesitate at paying the difference between the price of a first-rate stallion and an inferior one; and there is always one of the former to be found, to suit every description of mare. Breeders of all kinds of horses, but of the race-horse above all others, scarcely require to be cautioned against breeding from mares, or putting them to stallions, constitutionally infirm. By "constitutionally infirm," is chiefly implied having a tendency to fail in their legs and feet, during their training, which too many of our present racing-breed are given to. Still there are as many good judges who side with the earl, and affirm that the exterior conformation of the foal is principally derived from the sire, and its interior from the dam; thus throwing the responsibility of its sound or unsound lungs, which are, after all, the great test of a good racer, on the latter.
In consideration of the preference given to the stallion over the mare in the propagation of racing-stock, may be quoted the following passage, from part 3d of Percival's Lectures on the Veterinary Art, London, 1826:—"It might be supposed that the part the male takes in fecundation is comparatively a very unimportant one; it must be remembered, however, that the copulative act is the essential first cause, that therein the action of the organs is natural and sympathetic, and that the result is the generation of a new animal, bearing a likeness to one or both of the parents; from which it would appear, although the physical part of the male is simply to project the sperm into the female, who alone has the power of rendering it efficacious,
Race-Horse. that the influence of the sperm is much greater in the generative process than we seem to have any notion of, or at least than we have been able to reveal the nature of in physiology."
Rearing of Young Racing Stock.
Under all circumstances, there is too much resemblance between the speculations of the turf and a lottery; but, as the prizes it exhibits are valuable, the most effectual means of obtaining them should be adopted. It signifies little what care and circumspection have been exercised in the selection of stallions and mares, with a view of breeding racers; the prospect of success is very limited indeed at the present day, unless the produce be reared according to the improved system acted upon in our first-rate racing establishments. Such was the pertinacity of opinion combined with long-established prejudices, and in direct opposition to the daily acknowledged fact, of dry and warm countries having been the first to produce the horse in perfection, that it is only within a very few years that young thorough-bred stock has been reared in the manner in which it should be reared. A thorough-bred colt may now be said to be in training from the day on which he is dropped, so great is the care taken to force him into shape and substance. Not only is he drawing from the teats of his dam the milk of a highly fed animal, and consequently, in itself highly nutritious, but, before he is twelve months old, he eats nearly two bushels of oats per week. The time for expansion of frame is youth, and, when we see a two-year-old at the post, with eight stone seven pounds on his back, looking like a horse able to carry a light man after hounds, we most cordially assent to the answer given by the most experienced Newmarket trainer of the present age to the question, What is the best method of rearing a racing colt? "First observe," said he, "that the blood, or cross, is good; secondly, breed him as you would a sheep, from a roomy dam; and thirdly, give him as little green meat as possible, and as much corn as he will eat." The trainer we allude to has now retired, but he had all the young stock of the Duke of Grafton, and many of the first and most successful sportsmen in England, through his hands, and the annual disbursements of his establishment exceeded ten thousand pounds. That dry and hard food, as it is called, is the natural food of the parent stock from which our race-horses are descended, is beyond all doubt; and that the firmness of their acting parts is attributable to that, and to the warmth and dryness of the climate, is also admitted. Is it, then, to be wondered at, that breeders of horses, and not only of race-horses, have at length found out that dry food and warmth have the same effect in the Temperate as they have had, and now have, in the Torrid Zone? that they have discovered that, when colts are bred on rich succulent food, and subject to a humid atmosphere, the bulk of the body increases out of proportion to the strength of the bones; and to these predisposing causes are to be attributed most of the false points which we find in horses, such as fleshy shoulders, deficiency of muscle, weak pasterns, and flat feet? Virgil discovered this nearly two thousand years ago, and, when speaking in praise of Epirus, as suitable to the breeding of horses, emphatically observes:
"Continuo has leges, aeternaque federa certis
Imposuit natura locis." Georg. i. 60.
So careful, however, now are some of our principal and most successful breeders of race-horses to avoid these evils, that not only is a thorough-bred colt eating grass ad libitum become a rare sight, but he is not suffered to be exposed to rain, even in the midst of summer, no, not even to a temporary shower. The effect of rain upon horses' backs, is found to produce the worst of diseases—glanders, for instance—as is well known to all cavalry officers who
have been on service with their regiments; and it cannot be innocuous to the highly-bred foal or colt. That he should be sheltered from the cold of winter, need scarcely be insisted upon here, although we are rather inclined to think that, in the generality of breeding establishments, he is more exposed to weather in the winter than he ought to be. There is no objection to a moderate allowance of carrots, and a little green food; but according to the old Greek proverb, "ἄλλος βίος, ἄλλα διαίτα, another life, another diet, we must hear no more of the "natural food" of an animal insisted upon by many, who is so far called upon to outstrip the laws of nature as to begin to work at fourteen months old, and to appear at the starting-post at two years old, displaying the form, character, and strength of one nearly arrived at maturity. Neither is the land on which a racing-stud is situated oftentimes sufficiently considered; but a want of such consideration has been the source of great loss. It is in vain to expect success unless upon that which is dry, and consequently of sound subsoil; and what is termed "upland ground" is most favourable. Walls, independently of security, are preferable to hedges for inclosures to breeding paddocks, as the latter harbour flies, which are very injurious to young stock, and also to their dams, in hot weather; but the present small dimensions of breeding paddocks, not exceeding a quarter of an acre, and many still less, preclude the use of hedges.
Racing colts are physicked when foals, and periodically afterwards; their hoofs, also, are pared with a drawing-knife, that, by shortening the toe, the heel may have liberty to expand. Physic, in this case, may be termed the safety-valve, and such it is in reality, for this system of forcing nature cannot be free from danger. It is found, however, materially to promote growth, as indeed does the work that our racing-colts perform at such a very early age. Muscular action produces muscular strength, and growth will be the result; and we have seen colts sixteen months old measuring 15 hands 2 inches.
Racing colts can scarcely be handled too soon:—
"Dum facies animi juvenum, dum mobilis etas,"
as Virgil says of the bulls; and Horace illustrates the necessity of early erudition of the human species by the excellence of horses which have been well broken in when young. The first breaking in of colts is also alluded to by Ovid, who, like Horace, is in favour of very careful treatment of them, and reminds us of the necessity of it in the following beautiful line:—
"Frænque vix patitur de grege captus equus."
The system of breaking colts, however, is not only thoroughly well understood in our racing establishments, but is accomplished with much less severity than it formerly was, and consequently with less danger to the animal.
The time of foaling is one of great interest to owners of valuable brood mares, and particularly so when the produce is engaged, perhaps heavily, or when they are of what is termed a running family. The attention of the stud-groom is directed by sundry forewarnings, the most palpable of which is what is called "waxing of the udder," and appearance of milk, which generally precede parturition two or three days, but in some instances more. As the mare brings forth on her legs, there is little fear of the foal being overlaid by the mother; but the less she is disturbed the better, lest she should trample on its legs. Her treatment afterwards is now so well understood, that nothing requires to be said about it; but a bran mash, with from four to six ounces of nitre dissolved in it, given as soon as she has brought forth, keeps off fever. The great preventative of accidents to foals, is the simple contrivance of rollers on the sides of the door-frames, which secure them from being injured as they rush out of the hovel or shed by the side of their dams, especially in cases of alarm.
Horse.
Some persons prefer purchasing to breeding young racing stock, and it is difficult to determine between the advantages and disadvantages of the systems. It is true that, in the first case, the purchaser has a certainty of some return for his money, inasmuch as he gets his colt or filly, which the breeder may never get, after incurring a great expense on the mare. The price of a promising yearling, from a hundred to a thousand guineas, is a large sum to begin with; and we cannot, in this instance, say with Varro, that "a good horse is known from the first." If purchased after he has won in public, at two years old, he is often not to be purchased, if he has good engagements, under one to three thousand guineas, a large sum to realize, when added to concomitant expenses. Nothing but the immense amount of stakes for young racing-stock can justify such a speculation. For example, in 1824, a filly of the Duke of Grafton's won four thousand four hundred and fifty guineas, public money, by only starting twice; and Crucifix cleared £14805 during her two-year-old season in 1839.
One of the principal drawbacks from the prospects of success in a racing establishment, is a complaint called the distemper, a sort of catarrhal fever, the cause of which is generally attributed to atmospheric influence, and also to any other which may produce what is termed a cold. Unlike common catarrh, however, the distemper will run through a whole stud of horses; and if it do not, as it frequently does, end in an affection of the lungs, it leaves a lassitude behind it, which requires some time to remove. As a hot sun, with cold winds in spring, and the humid air of the autumn, are the chief predisposing causes of this complaint, an even temperature in the stable, and warm clothing when out of it, together with avoiding exposure to extremes of heat and cold, are the best safeguards against its attacks. It may be compared to a frost over the blossoms, which in one night blasts all former hopes of a crop.
A most interesting event to a breeder of thorough-bred stock is the trial of their racing powers, which at once decides the question of their being worth the expense of training to run or not. There is a great deal of judgment necessary in the act of trying even old horses, but still more is required to form a just estimate of young ones, from the difficulty of knowing when they are quite up to the mark, as well as of keeping them there. They are generally tried early in their two-year-old season, or very late in their yearling one. It is also not one jockey in thirty who can "try" well; and, as a general rule, he ought to ride the trial horse, not the one whose powers are to be tested. William Scott was a first-rate "taster," as it is termed, and so was Frank Butler.
But we have not yet spoken of the form of the race-horse, which we will now describe; and as nothing can be considered characteristic of a species, but what is perfect of its sort, we will so far endeavour to make the pen perform the task of the pencil, as to portray his cardinal points, as nearly perfect as such means will admit of. Nature herself, perhaps, rarely exhibits perfect models in the animal world, leaving the completion of her skill to human sagacity; neither is undeviating symmetry absolutely necessary in a race-horse. In every composite, however, beauty consists in the apt connexion of its parts with each other; and just proportions in the limbs and moving levers, coupled with that elegance of form in which there is no unnecessary weight to oppress the muscles, so peculiar to the highly bred race-horse, is all that need be insisted upon in a racer. It is nevertheless hard to say what horse will make a racer; and also what will not, until put to the test; for, how many horses have appeared, which the eye of the sportsman would not wish to study, and yet have proved themselves very capital runners? This excellence, however, in those "cross-made horses," as they are termed, not misshapen ones, arises,
as has been before observed, from their possessing parts conducive to speed and action, not, perhaps, very strikingly displayed, but, by means of greater length and depth, and a peculiar manner of setting on of the acting parts, enabling them to excel others, much handsomer to the eye, but
wanting in either proper declivity, length, or, what is still more probable, in circular extent of those parts. Thus, as the wise man, according to the Stoics, alone is beautiful, so is a race-horse to be admired solely for those points which make him a good race-horse.
Although symmetry and proportion form a perfect figure, and they become deformities when any of the component parts exceed or fall short of their due proportions, yet it is not always necessary to measure by the standard of perfection. Suffice it, then, to state the generally approved points of the English race-horse.
We commence with the head, not merely because it has always been considered as the most honourable member in the human frame, but as it is one of the leading characteristics of the thorough-bred horse. His broad, angular forehead, gives him that beautiful expression of countenance which no other breed possesses; and the tapering of the face from the forehead to the muzzle, forms a striking contrast with the large face of the cart-horse, and the forehead scarcely wider than the face. The race-horse should have a black, lively, and rather prominent eye, which denotes a sound constitution; and as horses do not breathe through the mouth, but only through the nose, the nostrils should be rather expanded and flexible, that they may accommodate themselves to quickened respiration, as the speed of the animal increases. But they should not be over large. "Naribus non angustis," says Varro, and he is right. Beauty in the head of the race-horse, however, is only a secondary consideration to the manner in which it should form a junction with the neck, as on that, in a great measure, depends the goodness of his wind in a race. His jaws should not only be thin, and not approach too near together at the throat, but they should not extend too high towards the onset, or they will impede his freedom of breathing. The neck of all horses should be muscular; but what is called a loose neck in a race-horse, is not so objectionable as in a hunter, and is considered as indicative of speed. But as the head of a horse may be called the helm which guides his course, changes, and directs his motions, it is not only desirable that, as he cannot move his head but with the muscles of his neck, those muscles should be pliant, but that he should also have what is termed a good mouth. It is asserted that the weight of the head and neck, the effect increasing with their distance from the trunk, adds to the speed of the horse, by throwing his weight forward; but this is no argument for additional weight or length in those parts, which ought to be duly proportioned to the trunk. The neck of the race-horse should be in no extreme, but rather long than otherwise, and not too much arched.
As horses are said to go with their shoulders, these may be considered as highly important points. They vary in form more than any other part of the horse's frame. Those of Flying Childers rose very high and fine towards the withers; whereas, a firkin of butter rested, unsupported, on the withers of Eclipse, when in covering condition. Upright shoulders, however, being (though not in Teddington's case) an impediment to speed, obliquity of the scapula is absolutely necessary, but we do not insist upon their running fine at the withers. We consider the shoulders of Eclipse to have resembled those of the greyhound, wide at the upper part, and nearly on a line with the back. Large, or even what are called coarse shoulders, contribute greatly to strength, and are no impediment to speed, if there is proper declivity of the scapula, or shoulder-bone. The withers, when high, or thin, should enlarge gradually downwards, and there should be four or five inches between the fore-thighs, but less between the feet.
The true position of the limbs is a most material point in the race-horse, as it causes him to stand over more ground than one which is otherwise formed, although possessing a more extended frame. One of these essential points is, the setting on of, and length in, the fore-arm, or part from shoulder to knee in the fore leg; and another is, the declension of the haunch to the hock in the hind leg, which is termed "well let down in the thigh." It is from having those points in excess, that enables the hare to de-
scribe a far greater circle, and cover more ground at one stroke, than any other animal nearly double her size. In fact, the arm should be set on at the extreme point of the shoulder, which insures this act of extension, and also adds to the declivity of the shoulder. The knee should be broad and flat, and if appearing somewhat prominent, the better. All the Herod legs had prominent knees (and no legs stood work better than they did), concussion in galloping being diminished in legs so formed. The cannon, or shank, from knee to fetlock, should be of moderate length in the race-horse (longer than in the hunter), and, above all, the leg should appear flat, not round, with sinews and bones distinct; and the former appearing to be very firmly braced. The pastern of the race-horse should be long, lax, and rather small than otherwise; length and laxness serving as springs, and smallness contributing to agility, and consequently to perseverance or bottom. Some comparison will hold good between this point in a horse, and the "small of the leg," as it is called, of a man, in contradistinction to the calf. Under the pressure of fatigue, no man complains of the "small of his leg" giving him uneasiness, but his calves often give him notice that he has done too much. The hoof of the race-horse should be of moderate size in proportion with the leg above, but, of course, those whose hoofs are unduly small cannot get well through dirt.
We have already alluded to the bone of the thorough-bred horse, which much exceeds that of any other variety of this animal, in its compactness and solidity; which qualities, as the span in the gallop must give a shock in proportion to its length, are admirably adapted to the race-horse. We cannot say of him, what Job said of the behemoth, that "his bones are like bars of iron;" yet, as in proportion to the muscular power of the animal is the dense quality of the bone, that of the race-horse need not, nor should not, be large. Experience teaches us, that bones very rarely break; fractures, when they do occur in racing, being almost invariably in the joints; and rather small bone in the leg of a race-horse, supported by broad and well-braced sinews and tendons, placed distinct from the bone, and forming what is called a flat and wiry leg, is most desirable, and found to be indicative not only of speed and endurance, but likewise of soundness in severe work. It is only those who are ignorant of the anatomical structure of animals, that fix the basis of strength in the bony substances alone, not considering the muscular appendages, which constitute the main-spring of strength and action.
As the strongest bodies owe their vigour to the milk they receive in their infancy, our recommendation to keep brood mares well will not be considered as unsuitable; but the connexion between milk and bone is also deserving of a remark. When animal bones are divested of their oil and jelly, the earth which remains is chiefly lime, united with phosphoric acid. It is worthy of notice, that phosphate of lime is found in abundance in milk. This seems to indicate, that Nature thought fit to place, in the first nourishment of animals, a quantity of osseous matter, with a view to the necessary celerity of the formation and growth of the bones in the earliest stage of their lives. This is one of the numerous instances of the beneficence of the Creator, exemplified by the science of chemistry, and shows the advantages to be expected from a good flow of milk in a mare that is well fed; and it is a remarkable fact, that the nearer the female approaches to the period of parturition, the more is the milk charged with this calcareous phosphate. Nor is it until the digestive organs of the food are sufficiently strengthened to answer the purposes and work of animalization, that this earthy salt disappears.
But to proceed with the form of a race-horse. The race-horse should have length, but the length should be in his shoulders and in the quarters; that is, the part posterior to the hips, and not in his back. To give him that elegance
Horse.
of form for which he is so conspicuous, there should be no acute angle or any straight line. His shoulders should go into his neck at the points, unperceived, and his back should sink a little behind the withers, which gives his rider a good seat, and does not in the least diminish his strength. On the contrary, horses with very straight backs are generally deficient in their fore-quarters, as well as in their action; and we have known some very good racers, Glencoe and Haphazard for instance, considerably hollow-backed. There should be a little rise in the loins, just behind the saddle; but the race-horse cannot be too closely ribbed up, if you wish him to stay a distance, and carry weight. The ribs should stand out from the spine, producing what is called a round barrel, together with depth of carcass, a formation which not only gives strength of body and constitution, but, by admitting the intestines to be comfortably lodged within the ribs, imparts freedom of breathing, activity and beauty to the whole frame of the horse, other parts being proportional. These useful points must not be carried to an extreme, or the horse may be "too heavy for his legs;" and we know that light-bodied horses save their legs much in their gallops, which accounts for mares and geldings standing the severity of training to a later period of life than stallions, by reason of the former requiring less work, from not generally carrying so much flesh as the latter.
There is no part, excepting the head, so truly characteristic of high breeding in the horse, as his haunch. If a little of the elegance of the parts, however, is diminished by the width of the hips, it will be recompensed by increased strength in the animal, as is the case with broad-shouldered men; and when accompanied with good loins, these protuberances of the ilium can scarcely be too great for the purposes of power and action. We next come to the thigh, the form and substance of which is most material to the race-horse; for although horses are said to go with their shoulders, the power to give the impetus in progressive motion comes from behind. With all animals endowed with, and requiring extreme rapidity of motion, the thigh is furnished with extraordinary powers and length—the hare, for example, whose thighs are let down to a great extent for their size, and the lower part of the hinder leg placed under them, as that of the racer should be, from a proper curve of the hock. The speed of the ostrich arises from the power of the muscles from the pelvis to the foot; and the thigh of the fighting cock is a point much considered by breeders. It is not necessary that a race-horse's thigh should be very large, but it should exhibit well developed muscle. Descending lower in the limb, we arrive at the hock, a very complicated joint, but the form of which is most important in the race-horse. It should be large and lean, and the point of it projecting behind the body, which greatly increases the power of the lever in action, as will presently be most satisfactorily shown.
The point of perfection in most things lies at a middle distance between two extremes, and such is the case here. The medium height, about 15 hands 2 inches, to 15 hands 3 inches—4 inches to a hand—is the best for a race-horse. As the long beam breaks by its own weight, so large animals have rarely strength in proportion to their size. On the English turf, however, the very large horses that have appeared have, with a very few exceptions, not been found so good under high weights, as those of a medium height; and several instances are on record (Meteora, Whalebone, and others, for example), of the best horse of his year being very nearly the lowest. Ancaster Starling, Gimcrack, Highlander, Milk-sop, and several of the best 14 hand 2 inch horses of the last century, could also defeat 16 hand horses cleverly at 4 miles, under 12 stone; and those modern dwarfs Mickey
Free and Midas have carried 8 st. 7 lbs. with good success.
The following are amongst the principal and essential points of a race-horse, pointed out by Mr Darvill in his Treatise on the English Race-horse, London, 1834:—
"His head should be small and lean; his ears small and picked; his eyes brilliantly large; his forehead broad and flat. . . . His throat should be clean, and fine from the butt of the ear down to its centre, with a good wide space between the jaw-bones, which latter should be thin. . . . The neck should be moderate in length. I prefer its being wide; I mean its width should be formed by the substance of muscles which pass along each side of the top part of it; from the withers to the head it may gradually rise a little in its centre, but by no means to any extreme, as I have a great aversion to a high-crested race-horse. Indeed, I would prefer that his neck should be rather of the ewe or deer-like shape, than that it should be loaded on the top. As to the lower part of the neck, I have no very particular remarks to make, further than the trachea or windpipe should be spacious and loosely attached to the neck on its way to the lungs.
"The withers may be moderately high, and, if the reader like, they may also be moderately thin; but, with respect to this latter point, I am not so very particular, provided the shoulders lay well back. From the withers the back commences. I confess that appearance may be in favour of a horse that has his back a little low or hollow. As a saddle-horse this may be all very well, but for a race-horse to have strength and liberty of stride his back should be straight and moderately long, with the shoulders and loins running well in at each end. The loins should have great breadth and muscular substance, so much so as for them to have the appearance of being raised as it were on their surface; and those muscles posterior to the loins should fill up level the top part of the quarters to the setting on of the tail, which latter should be set on pretty high up."
After describing the fundament, which, if small, close, and tight, and rather projecting than otherwise, Mr Darvill considers as a good constitutional point, he thus proceeds:—"I now come to speak of the body, or what is by some people commonly called the 'middle piece' of the horse, and which is divided, internally, into two cavities by a muscular substance called the 'diaphragm.' The anterior cavity, the chest, contains the lungs, the heart, &c. The posterior one, the abdomen, contains the stomach, intestines, liver, kidneys, &c. Now, with respect to the external form of the body, which contains and protects all those numerous organs so important to life, I shall first make my observations on the chest. To use a common phrase, and somewhat an expressive one, a horse in this part should be what is called 'well over the heart,' that is, he should be deep in his girth, round or well arched in his ribs. I mean by this, that a rider on the back of a race-horse (as they are generally better about the chest than horses in common use), should feel he has some breadth or substance between his legs; and there should be a good swell of muscle before his knees, or the centre of the flaps of the saddle. The chest, thus sparsely formed, gives room for respiration, so that in training the horse's wind can be brought to the greatest perfection, which enables him to run on long lengths. The next part to be treated of is the abdomen or belly, or what is usually called the carcass. It may perhaps appear a little strange, but I have a great aversion to what is commonly called a good-carcassed horse, nor am I particularly partial to a large sheathed one. I like both these parts to be in the medium, as I do also that of his being well ribbed up. It is true that a horse being well ribbed up denotes strength, and a short close-made race-horse is, in running, handy at his turns, and, as I have already noticed, he is generally a pretty good one under high weights
Race-Horse. over a small round cock-pit course; but this description of course and sort of running is not now so much practised as formerly, or rather it is a sort of racing that does not exactly suit long-striding horses, as most of those are that run in Newmarket. Another thing is, that horses with large carcasses are mostly great gluttons; they put up flesh very rapidly, and are very difficult and troublesome to train, in consequence of their constitutions being too strong, or proportionably too much for their feet and legs. Such horses not only seldom remain long in training, but they cannot remain long in condition without their becoming stale in themselves, as also on their legs, and those are my reasons for objecting to very large-carcassed horses; yet I do not wish horses to be what is termed 'tucked up' or waspish in their carcasses. I like a horse's carcass to be in the medium; that is, it should be straight and handsome from behind the girths of his saddle; and what will make up sufficiently well, and give him sufficient strength of constitution, is the well formation of the parts already noticed, as the chest, the loins, and the fundament.
"To return to the fore extremities. The shoulders commence from a little below the withers; they should lie most particularly well back, should be deep, broad, and muscularly strong; yet those muscular parts should appear to the eye as being moderately so, that is, not unproportionally loaded. These muscles should be distinctly seen, there should be no appearance of fat, or, as it is technically termed, 'adipose membrane.' The shoulders cannot well be too oblique in their descent to the front of the chest; here, on each side, a joint is formed by the lower part of the scapula or shoulder-blade being united with the upper part of the humerus or arm-bone. Those joints, thus formed, are usually called the points of the shoulders, which points should appear straight or level. There should be no coarse, projecting, or heavy appearance about the points of the shoulders of such horses as are intended to race; nor indeed does this often occur, unless where it happens that the chest or counter of the horse is unproportionally wide. In taking a front view of the chest, it should appear moderate as to breadth; and if its prominence is at all to the extreme, it should be in consequence of the fulness or substance of those muscles covering the breast, which muscles should be lengthy, and their divisions distinctly to be observed. The fore-arm should be broad and long, and most particularly well furnished with muscles on its top parts, inside as well as out; I mean by this, that the muscles on the top and inside of the arm should here be so large as to leave but a moderate space between the fore-legs, immediately under the chest, and which muscles should appear, as those in front of the chest, distinctly divided. The posterior part of the top of the arm is called the 'elbow,' this should appear (the horse in condition) somewhat on a level with the body; if it at all deviates from this appearance, I would prefer its standing in, to that of its standing unproportionally out. The knee-joint should be large, broad, and flat in front; generally speaking, the larger and broader all joints are in reason the better and stronger they are; and the longer, coarser, and rougher, their projecting points or processes are, the greater and more secure will be the lever for the muscles or tendons to act upon, provided such projecting parts or joints (as the hocks and pasterns) do not amount to disease, as that of producing spavins and ring bones. The legs from the knee to the fetlock cannot well be too short, neither can they well be too broad or too flat, nor their flexor tendon scarcely be too large or appearing too distinctly divided, as it were, from the leg. The fetlock-joint should also be large, and the pastern proportionally strong, but its length and obliquity should be in the medium. The wall or crust of the feet should also be moderately oblique, with the heels open, and frogs sound; this, indeed, is generally the state of racing-colts on first bear-
ing their paddocks, if their feet have been paid proper attention to during the time they may have remained there. Yet the feet of such of them as have been some time in work will occasionally get out of order; they grow upright and strong; the horn gets hard and brittle, and the heels more or less contracted; almost all of which defects are too often occasioned from the want of proper attention being paid to them at the time of shoeing, and of proper applications being applied to them in the stables. Previous to concluding my remarks on the fore extremities, it may not be amiss to observe to the reader, that, supposing him to stand opposite to those parts of the horse, if the animal is formed in them, as I have already described, the centre of the top part of the fore-arm, to be well placed, ought to be nearly or quite in a parallel line with the top or fore-part of the horse's withers; and again, from the top part of the fore-arm down to the foot, for the horse to stand firm and well, and have the power of using his fore-legs well, he should stand perfectly straight on them; I mean by this, they are not to appear too much under him, or too much out or away from him. Suppose again, for example, a man standing in front of the horse, and here taking a view of the foot, the centre part of the wall or crust should be in or on a parallel line with that lower part or joint of the shoulder, commonly termed its point. A horse's feet, thus placed, will neither be too much out nor too much in; but should his feet deviate from what I have here observed, by amounting to a fault, in turning too much out or too much in, I should prefer their being a little out, to that of the other extreme of turning in, and being what is called 'pigeon-toed.'
"I shall now proceed to describe the hind-quarters or posterior extremities. As may be supposed, the well formation of those parts is of the utmost importance to a race-horse in his running; it is, therefore, necessary that they should be, in breadth, substance, and length, of very superior dimensions. The hips should have a great breadth between them; and if they are a little coarse or projecting so much the better, provided such coarse projections are not in the extreme, or appear vulgar or unsightly. From the centre and posterior part of the loins to the top of the tail is called the 'croup,' and should be of great length; and, if it deviates from that of a straight line, it may be somewhat arched in the centre; the croup being thus formed gives great breadth to the top of the quarters, the length of which, from the croup down to the hock, cannot scarcely be of too great an extent, in order that there may be sufficient room here for the attachment of those broad, powerful, lengthy, and distinctly divided muscles on the outside of the quarters and thighs; and there should also be a similar portion of such muscles on the inside of the quarters and thighs; so that a man, who is a good judge, taking a posterior view, may observe how the horse is made. In this position he should be, as it were, struck by the appearance of the great breadth and length of the back part of the quarters, and as he moves his head to the right or left, the centre and outside of the quarters and thighs, and the swell of the muscles, should appear beyond a level with the hips. The upper part of the muscles on the inside of the quarters should appear quite close to each other, so that no vacant space should be visible between them, as that of an appearance of the horse being (if I may thus express myself) chucked up in the fork. Such should be the lengthy and muscular quarters of a well-made race-horse.
"The stifle-joint should be in a direct line under the hip, and the length from this joint to that of the hock cannot reasonably be too long, and the farther out of the angular or oblique position of the thigh-bone the better, so as to admit of the back part or projecting point of the hock appearing some distance out beyond the top of the hind-quarters; those parts being thus formed, admit of a very considerable
Horse.
lever for the main tendon here to act upon the tendon Achilles, which, like the flexor one of the leg, can scarcely be too large or too distinctly seen in its commencement, from the lower part of the quarter to its insertion into the posterior or projecting point of the hock, the as calcis. The hock should be broad and wide, with a clean lean appearance, and those soft parts which are occasionally the seat of through-pins and bog spavins, in a sound well formed hock, should appear more as cavities than as having the above-mentioned projections, and which are sometimes the cause of lameness. The hind-leg, like the fore one, should be short, broad, flat, and straight; the trifling angle formed by the hock should, together with the moderate obliquity of the pastern, bring the extremity of the toe nearly under the stiff-joint.
Action of the Race Horse.
As amongst the Egyptians the lion was the hieroglyphic of strength, so was the horse of agility; and truly nothing displays it more elegantly than he does, when in a state of liberty. In the race-horse, action, as in eloquence, is the next thing to substance; and virtus in actione should be the horse-breeders' motto. But the action of the race-horse is of a nature peculiar to his calling. He must not only possess great stride in his gallop, the result of great proportion in his limbs and moving levers, but also a quickness in repeating that stride, or he would lose in time what he gains in space. It is then when stride and quickness are united, that the fleet racer is produced; and in his race with Diamond, Hambletonian is asserted to have covered twenty-one feet at a stroke at the finish of it; and Eclipse is generally believed to have covered eighty-three and a half feet of ground in a second, when going at the top of his speed, which, by a calculation by Monsieur Saintbel, amounted to about twenty-five feet of ground covered at a stroke. Different ground requires different action; and the long striding horse may be beaten on a hilly, or turning course, by one of a smaller size, but with a shorter stride, which prevents the Newmarket courses being a certain criterion of a good runner at Epsom, which is very trying ground. The state of the ground, likewise, whether wet or dry, soft or hard, tells so much in a race, as often to give it to a horse very little thought of at starting, as was the case with Tarrare and Saucebox, winners of the St Leger, at Doncaster, in 1826 and 1855. The celebrated Euphrates, the winner of so many gold cups, and who ran till he was in his teens, was nearly a stone below his usual form, after even a hard shower of rain. This variation of fleetness corroborates our assertion, that the virtue of what is termed blood is mechanical, or that the excellence of all horses is mechanical, and that the smallest deviation from a true formation of the acting parts operates so powerfully as to render them, under certain exertions, nearly valueless.
Wind.
It is true, "speed wins the race;" but to make it available to the race-horse, it must be accompanied by endurance, or "bottom." A great promoter of this is clear wind, or freedom of respiration, the want of which makes the war-horse rebel in the manège, the hunter run into his fences, the draught-horse fall, as if he were shot, and the racer either stop, or bolt out of the course. In fact, when the organs of respiration are fatigued, all animals are nearly powerless. The cause of good wind may be distinguishable to the eye, and arises chiefly from depth in the fore-quarters, which implies a capacious thorax or chest. However wide a horse may be in his foreparts, he will not be good-winded unless he is, at the same time, deep. But still wind in the race-horse depends on something more—
on the nature of his constituent and component parts, which, if in proper proportion, impart to him strength and agility, giving him that easy action which will not readily fatigue these organs of respiration; and so enable him to run on, when others, less gifted by nature than himself, are forced to slacken pace. The good effect of clear wind in a race-horse is in fact twofold; first, it gives him signal advantage in a race; and, secondly, horses thus organized require less work to make them fit to start.
The following passage on this point is worthy of remark:—
"When the animal powerfully exerts himself, a more ample supply of pure blood is required to sustain the energies of life, and the action of the muscles forces the blood more rapidly through the veins; hence the quick and deep breathing of a horse at speed; hence the necessity of a capacious chest, in order to yield an adequate supply, and the connection of this capacity of the chest with the speed and the endurance of the horse; hence the wonderful relief which the mere loosening of the girths affords to a horse blown and distressed, enabling the chest to expand, and to contract to a greater extent, in order to yield more purified blood; and hence the relief afforded by even a short period of rest, during which this expenditure is not required, and the almost exhausted energies of these organs have time to recover. Hence, likewise, appears the necessity of an ample chest for the accumulation of much flesh and fat; for, if a considerable portion of the blood be employed in the growth of the animal, and it be thus rapidly changed, there must be provision for its rapid purification; and that can only be effected by the increased bulk of the lungs, and the corresponding largeness of the chest to contain them" (Farmers' Series, "The Horse," part vi., p. 182).
Certain thorough-bred horses would deceive an inexperienced observer as to the real state of their organs of respiration, by an appearance of difficulty of breathing, which in reality they do not possess. The term for this apparent defect is, in one instance, hard breathing, or high-blowing; and, in another, "cracking the nostrils." Of the first description was the celebrated Eclipse, whose breathing in his gallop could be heard at a considerable distance; and of the latter (still more common) may be reckoned many of the best racers of past and present days. Indeed, a race-horse cracking his nostrils in his exercise, and snorting well afterwards, are considered indicative of good-windedness. On the other hand, when a race-horse becomes a roarer, which is a common effect of a severe attack of the epizootic, called the distemper, he is rarely able to struggle in a race, although there have been several instances of winners under such very unfavourable circumstances.
Temper is a property of much importance to the race-horse, subject as he is to its influence under more trying circumstances than most other descriptions of horses. In the first place, his fine and nearly hairless skin, softened and cleansed as it is by frequent copious perspiration, is so highly sensible to the friction of the wisp and brush, as to induce him to try to rid himself of his tormentor by attacking the person who is dressing him, and thus becomes vicious in the stable. It will also be recollected that he is at this time perhaps in the very highest state of condition and good keep of which his nature is susceptible. On the race-course, again, he has often to encounter the (to him) unnatural sound of music, and many strange objects; perhaps two or three false starts before he gets into a race; and too often, when doing his best in a race, very severe punishment both by whip and spur. It is in his race, however, and chiefly in the last struggle for it, that the temper of the race-horse is most put to the test; and, if really bad, he either runs out of the course, to the great danger of his rider, and to the inevitable loss of his owner and those who
Race-Horse. have betted on his winning, or he "shuts up," as the term is, and will not head his horses. It is evident, then, that breeders should not send mares to stallions of known bad temper, as nearly all those propensities are found to be hereditary.
It would be absurd to draw a comparison between the English race-horse in training and the horse of the desert "educated," as Mr Gibbon eloquently says of him, "in the tents, among the children of the Arabs, with a tender familiarity, which trains him in the habits of gentleness and attachment." Nevertheless, we are inclined to believe that the tempers of many naturally quiet horses are made uncertain, and oftentimes decidedly vicious, by want of proper judgment, as well as good temper, in those who have the management of them. Brutes, like men, demand a peculiar mode of treatment when we require them to do their utmost for us; and it is certain that this principle holds good in regard to both—namely, that in general kindness gains its point, cruelty provokes resistance, and a proper degree of severity produces obedience. The panther in the fable knew who fed her with bread, and who pelted her with stones; and we may be assured, that so noble and high-spirited an animal as the horse feels with acuteness sensations of pleasure and pain.
We often hear it asserted that the British thorough-bred horse has degenerated within the last few years, and is no longer the stout and long-enduring animal that he was in the bygone century, particularly during the last twenty years of it. We are inclined to believe that there is some truth in this. We do not think we have such good four-mile horses, as they are termed, as formerly, which we consider easily accounted for. They are not wanted, very few four-mile races being now run, even at Newmarket or in the country, and therefore a different kind of race-horse is sought for. It may, however, be true that the inducement to train colts and fillies, at a very early period of their lives, for these short races, has had an injurious effect on their stamina, and, consequently, on the stock bred from them. Formerly a horse was wanted for a lifetime, now he is cut up in his youth to answer the purposes of perhaps but one day—a system, we admit, quite at variance with the original object of horse-racing, which was intended to benefit the community, by being the means of producing, as well as displaying, the constitutional strength of the horse in its very highest perfection. Another cause may have operated in rendering thorough-bred horses less powerful than they were, or less capable of enduring severe fatigue. During the period of high weights and long courses, horses and mares were kept on in training until after they had arrived at the age of maturity, neither did they begin to work so soon; whereas now, no sooner have they won, or run well for some of our great three-year-old stakes, than they are put into the stud to produce racing stock, which is perhaps to be used much in the same manner as they themselves have been used, or, we should have rather said, abused. The amount of work which horses now get through at two years' old is enormous. Lord Alfred, for instance, ran twenty-four races at this age, and won nine; and Cloth-worker won twenty-nine out of fifty-nine; and Rataplan thirty-eight out of sixty-three races during two consecutive seasons. Zohrab, and Isaac and Naworth, also retained their racing powers for seven or eight seasons; and Alonzo, who began to race as a two-year-old in 1849, is still in good winning form in 1856.
But to return to the alleged alteration for the worse in the British race-horse. We admit the fact, that he is not generally so good at high weights over the Beacon at Newmarket, or any other four-mile course, as his predecessors were, whose descent was closer than his is to the blood of Herod and Eclipse, and the descendants of that cross, said to be the stoutest of any. Nevertheless he is, in his present form,
more generally adapted to the purposes to which the horse is applied. He has a shorter but more active stroke in his gallop than his predecessors had, which is more available to him in the short races of the present time than the deep rate of the four-milers of old times; and as he is now required to start quickly, and to be on his legs, as the term is, in a few hundred yards, he is altogether a more lively active animal than formerly; and, as such, a useful animal for more ends than one. In former days not one trained thorough-bred horse in fifty made a hunter. Indeed few sportsmen had the courage to try the experiment of making him one. He went more upon his shoulders, as well as with a straighter knee, than the modern race-horse does, and required much greater exertion in the rider to pull him together in his gallop. All those sportsmen, however, who remember such horses as the late Earl Grosvenor's John Bull and Alexander must admit that in form and substance they were equal to carrying the heaviest weight across a country, and the last-mentioned horse was the sire of several very powerful, at the same time very brilliant hunters. But as it is action, after all, that carries weight, the thorough-bred horses of this day are not deficient in that respect, unless undersized; and there are more thorough-bred hunters at this period, and have been more for the last thirty years, than were ever known before. This improvement in action also qualifies the full-bred horse for the road; whereas formerly not one in a hundred was fit to ride off turf.
"The Druid," in his new work, The Post and the Padlock, after mentioning that the late Lord George Bentinck had thirty-eight horses in training one season, and that his losses on his colt Farintosh, in stakes and forfeits alone, reached L.3000, thus epitomizes the leading points of the turf as it is:—"Mr Mostyn's winnings in stakes are said to have been about L.22,500 in 1847, an amount which has, we believe, never been exceeded. In value the L.6325 Derby of 1849 still keeps the lead; while the L.3378 which was taken at the Doncaster Grand Stand in Stockwell's year is said to be the largest sum of the kind on record. The subscribers to the above Derby numbered 237, and the luckiest of handicaps was the Chester cup of 1853, when 131 out of 216 horses accepted. This cup also brought out forty-three starters in 1852, which is more than have ever been seen at the starting-post in the memory of man before or since the handicap era—that inevitable result of railway facilities for "getting a length" set in with such intensity. None of these "great facts" bear date in 1855; but taking Weatherby's Calendar as our guide, we may characterize the turf of that year as a vast institute for sport, comprising 144 meetings in Great Britain and Ireland, which were attended by 1606 horses, of whom only 680 were winners, fed by L.60,000 of added money, inclusive of the value of cups and whips, and diffusing L.198,000 in added money and stakes, "more or less."
Speed of the Race-Horse.
All animals in a state of domestication exhibit powers far beyond those that are natural to them in their wild state, and writers on the horse have advanced to the utmost verge of possibility, in recording the maximum speed of the English race-horse. Most of the instances stated by them, such as Flying Childers having run a mile in a minute, are unsupported by authority, and therefore not worthy of regard. That the horse, however, has ever been considered the swiftest beast of the forest, may be gathered from the frequent allusions to his fleetness by inspired as well as by heathen writers. Thus, the chariot-horses of Oenomaus, King of Elis, were said to be begotten by the winds, emblematical of their prodigious swiftness; and Homer represents the steeds of Achilles to be the produce of Zephyrus (the west wind, said to be the swiftest of any), and Podarge,
Horse.
whose name signifies speed. Nor is Virgil far behind the rest in his encomium on the fleetness of his colt, which he makes to challenge the very whirlwind itself. As it is speed, however, that wins the race, it is most essential to the race-horse, provided it be accompanied by stoutness; and unless we wish to fly through the air like Pacolet on his wooden horse, we may be contented with the speed of the present English race-horse. One minute and forty-five seconds is considered first-rate time for a mile; and the one mile six furlongs, and one hundred and thirty-two yards, St Leger course, is done, on the average, by three-year-olds, carrying 8 st. 7 lbs., in 3 minutes 20 seconds. West Australian's Ascot cup race, in 1854, when he ran the very severe 2½ miles course with 8 st. 5 lbs. in 4 minutes 27 seconds, is the best modern time we have.
Expenses of a Breeding Racing-Stud.
Some persons must be breeders of race-horses, but whether to profit or loss, depends on various circumstances. Amongst them may be reckoned the following:—Judgment in selecting the parent stock or blood; conveniences for keeping the produce well and warm, and on land suitable to breeding; and plenty of money at command to enable a breeder to purchase mares of the very best racing families, and to put them to the best of stallions. When this is the case, we think breeding (we mean quite distinct from risk in racing) would seldom fail to pay, if the foals were sold off at weaning time, or even at a year old. The price fetched by the two hundred blood yearlings, which are usually brought to the hammer in England, averaged, during the racing seasons of 1854-55, about 127 guineas, which is calculated for all prices, from 10 guineas to 1000 guineas, or in the case of Lord of the Hills, 1800 guineas. Within the fifteen months which preceded this remarkable (1855) sale at Doncaster, to Mr S. Crawfurd, 1000 guineas, 1020 guineas, 1000 guineas, 1200 guineas, and 1400 guineas, were got for yearling colts in public and private; and 900 guineas and 810 guineas for yearling fillies. The average price at the royal sale of 1854 was 441 guineas for fourteen, many of whom were of the Orlando blood, which fetches a higher price than any other we have. No doubt, in all studs, great loss is sustained by a certain proportion of the young stock which promise to be small and not worth training; but here breeders are often deceived. For example, the late Lord Grosvenor sent Meteora, the best mare in England of her day, to Chester Fair, when two years old, to be sold for L.16, because she was considered as too small; and he also suffered Violante, the best four-mile racer of her day, to be sold, untried, for L.50, but fortunately purchased her again. The great prices, however, occasionally paid to breeders for some horses (4000 guineas, for example, to the Earl of Jersey for Mameluke, and 3500 guineas for Bay Middleton), make up for the loss inseparable from such as, by misshape, diminutive size, and casualties, are culled out, and sold for what they will fetch, which seldom amounts to much. Five thousand guineas was refused for Plenipo; and the greatest price ever given for a race-horse was 6500 guineas for the two-year-old, Hobby Noble, in 1851. We may, however, cease to wonder at such prices, when we find that the Flying Dutchman won his owner nearly L.20,000 in stakes alone, and that the winnings of himself and his half-brother, Van Tromp, who belonged to the same owner, amounted to nearly L.34,000. Cotherstone won, at three years old, L.12,765, West Australian, L.10,975, and Surplice, L.10,375.
Colour of the Thorough-bred Horse.
The prevailing colour of the thorough-bred horse is peculiarly elegant and chaste, being a bright bay, with black
mane and tail, and black legs to correspond, although occasionally relieved with a small white star on the forehead, or a white heel. It is remarkable that what may be termed vulgar colours, such as light sorrel, or dun, or brown with mealy muzzle, are very seldom met with in the thorough-bred horse; and we know but one instance of the pie-bald, and very few roans.1 Black is not common, nor approved of, although several of our best racers, almost all of the Trampator blood, have been of that colour. The real chestnut prevails a good deal, and is quite equal to the bay in the richness and brightness of its hues. Such was the colour of Eclipse; and, as is the case with game-fowls, in the breeding of which there are instances of a reversion to the original colour, after fifteen descents, it is not uncommon for thorough-bred stock to be chestnuts, although got by a bay stallion out of a bay mare, or from a sire and dam of any other colour, provided the blood runs back to his, Eclipse's, source. Indeed, a small dark spot which that celebrated horse had on his quarter, has been frequently found in his descendants in the fifth or sixth generation. It is an old and trite saying, that "a good horse cannot be of a bad colour;" nevertheless, colours of horses are, to a certain extent, indices of their physical powers. Such has proved to be the case with men; and it was found in the ill-fated Russian campaign, that men of dark complexions and black hair bore the severity of the climate better than men of an opposite appearance to them. It is, however, rather a remarkable fact, that by far the greater number of eminent English prize-fighters have been men of light, not dark, complexion. The ancients reckoned thirteen colours of horses, giving the preference to bay (badices); and the dark bay, or "Jersey bay," is still the favourite English colour, though foreigners prefer a "black brown."
A second-rate description of racer was once very prevalent in England, known by the term "cock-tail," or half-bred horse, as he is called; but improperly so termed, because the stain in him is generally very slight indeed, and too often difficult to be traced. Many objections are raised by sportsmen, who are thorough racing men, and who wish well to the turf, against the cock-tail racer, and for very good reasons. In the first place, if really half-bred, he resembles the royal stamp upon base metal, for no half-bred horse is deserving the name of racer; and, secondly, what are called half-bred stakes, some of which are very good, have been the cause of a great many frauds being committed, by bringing horses to run for them under false pedigrees, which will ever be the case, from the great difficulty of proving a horse to be thorough-bred, whose dam may have been purchased by accident, or in some clandestine way, and still perhaps of pure racing blood. An animal is produced against which no half-bred horse, in the proper acceptance of the term, has a chance, and he sweeps the country of all the good stakes; and some such horses (Habberley and Combat, for example) have proved themselves superior to many of the thorough-bred racers of their year. But the breeding of horses for these stakes is anything but beneficial to the country, the great object of racing. It encourages a spurious race of animals, often possessing the faults of the blood horse without the strength and activity of the hunter, and it was for the latter description of horse that this stake was first intended. Bona fide hunters' stakes would be advantageous, if open to all horses bringing certificates of their having been regularly hunted throughout a season, but not merely ridden by a boy to see a fox found; and giving no allowance to the horse called "half-bred." Let the best hunter win, which would encourage the breeding of strong thorough-bred horses, which make the best hunters of any;—a fact no one who has ridden many of them will deny.
1 See "The Cocker," by W. Sketchley, Gent. London, 1814.
To assist in the detection of spurious blood, and the correction of inaccurate pedigrees, is the chief purpose of this excellent publication, now increased to a seventh volume, and forms a part of every sportsman's library; but, unfortunately, many breeders who do not race are careless about entering their foals in it. "The Druid," in his recently
quoted work, gives it as his opinion, that about 1550 blood mares annually bring 1150 foals to the birth in Great Britain. Taking 1851 as the basis of his calculations, he considers that about 1160 foals were born in that year, of which not 1100 were alive on the next new-year's day. Of these 574 ran in 1853, which number decreased in 1854 to 516, but in 1855 the remnant of that high-bred band only numbered 280.
There is no description of horse which could be applied to so many purposes, racing excepted, as the powerful English hunter. Setting aside his own peculiar services in the field, he is fit to carry a man on the road, in 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 hunters, and, distinguishing them by riding them afterwards with hounds, obtain now and then as high a price for them as
they fetch after having passed through the hands we have described. It is, however, to be lamented that the last-mentioned description of persons, the breeders and trainers of young hunters, do not, for the most part realize such large prices as the first, although fully entitled to it, as a reward for their trouble and skill.
It is impossible to lay down any precise rules for breeding hunters, so many collateral circumstances being necessary to be taken into consideration. For example, Pennant, in his Zoology, says, "Our race-horses are descended from Arabian stallions, and the genealogy faintly extends to the hunter." From this we learn the interesting fact, that a wonderful change, within the last sixty or seventy years, has taken place in the form and character of this sort of horse, inasmuch as, in the opinion of some of the first of our English sportsmen, and such as put the powers of the horse to the most severe test, the hunter of the present day is not in his perfect form unless quite thorough-bred. This part of the subject we shall discuss hereafter; but as there are several of our hunting counties not at all suited to this description of horse, the thorough-bred hunter, and a large portion of our sportsmen who, some by reason of their weight, and others from prejudice against them, neither can nor will ride them, we may safely assert, that not more than a twentieth part of English hunters are at this time of quite pure blood. We will, however, set forth what we consider the best properties of the full-bred and the half-bred hunter, as he is called, as also the most probable means of breeding each kind to advantage; at the same time venturing an opinion, that, when their individual capabilities are put into the scale of excellence, the balance will incline to the former.
One great obstacle to the general success in breeding hunters is, not so much the difficulty of access to good stallions, but of making breeders believe that it would be their interest to send their mares to such as are good, although at an extra expense. Most rural districts, in other respects favourable to horse-breeding, swarm with covering stallions, the greater part of which have proved very bad racers; but which, falling into the hands of persons who are popular characters in their neighbourhood, and covering at a low price, get most of the farmers' brood mares sent to them, their owners never reflecting, as they gaze upon these mis-shapen animals, that nature will not go out of her course to oblige them, but that, in the animal creation, "like begets like." Neither does the evil stop here. So much is this made a matter of chance instead of one of judgment, should the produce of a mare sent to one of these bad stallions be a filly foal, and she proves so defective in shape and action, as to be unsaleable at a remunerating price, she remains the property of her breeder, and in time becomes herself a brood-mare. What, then, can be expected from such produce? Why, unless chance steps in and supplies the defect of judgment, in the first instance, admitting that she is sent to a better stallion than her sire was, by the procreative powers of the male so far exceeding those of the female, as to produce a foal free from the defects of the dam, another shapeless, unprofitable animal is produced. Nevertheless, in the course of time, perhaps this produce, if a female, however bad she may prove, is also bred from, and thus a succession of shapeless horses is produced, to the certain loss of the breeder, and much to the injury of the community. Under the most favourable circumstances, and with the aid of good judgment, we cannot consider horse-breeding to be a certain source of gain; yet there are many inducements to try it as one branch of rural economics. The money goes out a little at a time, or by degrees, and therefore it is suitable to such occupiers of land as cannot embark in more extensive speculations, and it returns in a lump, oftentimes at a most welcome moment, and, in many instances, of sufficient amount to render the average of former less profitable years sufficient to cover expenses, if not to leave a profit. There is likewise another inducement to breeding horses; we mean the interest inseparable from all human speculations, from which more than an ordinary return may be looked for, which is the case here; added to the nearly universal interest attached to the breeding and rearing of every species of domestic animals.
With respect to brood-mares designed for breeding hunters, we admit that circumstances, not always within control, have their weight. An occupier of land is possessed of a mare or two which he thinks may breed hunters, and having them, it may not be convenient to him to replace them by those which might be more likely to breed good ones. But the choice of a stallion is always within his control, and he should not spare trouble, and moderately increased price, in his selection. It is well known to all hunting men, that the stock of certain horses have been remarkable for making good hunters (President, Belzoni, and Sir Harry Dimsdale, for instance), and that there are such horses always to be found, on seeking for them. A few pounds extra, laid out by the breeder in putting his mares to such horses, were sure to be amply repaid; for the produce would be generally sought after and purchased, even previously to their being tried. Englishmen know of no such restrictions, nor do we wish they ever should; but the interference of the governments of several European states as to stallions for the use of their respective countries, reads us a useful lesson on this head; for it is well known, on the other hand, that a great number of stallions to which English hunting mares have been put, have been equally remarkable for begetting soft infirm stock, quite unequal to endure, for any length of time, the severe work of a hunter.
It should also be borne in mind, that even a first-rate racer may not be a propagator of first-rate hunters. The former is called upon to exert his powers on very different grounds and under very different weight to the latter, and the action which may suit one may not suit the other. This accounts for the stock of certain thorough-bred horses, which were very indifferent racers, proving very excellent hunters. We have already given it as our opinion, that a cross of Arabian blood is a great desideratum in that of an English hunter, and we need not urge this point farther; but if breeders would reflect, that the expenses of rearing a bad colt equal those of rearing a good one, they would attend more than they do to the following nearly unerring directions:—
First. Observe similarity of shape in horse and mare. As length of frame is indispensable in a hunter, if the mare be short, seek for a stallion likely to give her length. Again, if the mare be high on her legs, put her to a short-legged stallion, and vice versa; for it is possible that even a hunter's legs may be too short, a racer's certainly may be. In fact, to form a complete hunter, it is necessary he should be more perfect in his shape than a racer, which will admit of imperfections that would quite disqualify the other.
Secondly. Look to constitution. As no description of horse endures the long-continued exertion that a hunter does, this is a point to be attended to. But it may be overdone. Horses of a very hard nature, very closely ribbed up, consequently great feeders, with large carcasses, seldom make the sort of brilliant hunter now the fashion in England. Besides, one of this description requires so much work to keep him in place and in wind, that his legs must suffer, and often give way when his constitution is just in its prime. Horses with moderately sized carcasses last longest; and, provided they are good feeders, will come out quite as often as they ought to do, and are invariably good winded and brilliant, if well-bred and of good form, with a few other requisites.
Thirdly, and lastly. Let the breeder of any kind of horse be careful in avoiding either sire or dam that has proved constitutionally infirm. As has been already shown on very high authority, perfect or defective conformation is not more likely to be the result of a proper selection of horse and mare, than disease to be inherited from parents that have been constitutionally diseased. We could name stallions whose stock have been blind; others afflicted with splints, curbs, and spavins, and a mare which produced three roaners by three different sires. But it may be said, that splints, curbs, and spavins, are the result of malformation of the parts. Granted; but avoid all such malformation which is quite apparent to the eye in a breeding stud. It may perhaps be carrying this objection too far, were we to say, we would not breed from a mare or horse, which had become groggy or lame in the feet, from diseased navicular joints. Had the feet been more vigorously constituted, perhaps such lameness might not have occurred; yet it is but too probable that here the predisposing cause may be traced to over-severe treatment, and not to constitutional defect. The choice of sires is by no means limited, as there are about 300 blood sires in the United Kingdom, at the service of the public, at all prices for blood mares, from 50 guineas to 2 guineas, or even gratis, if the mare is the dam of a winner. Birdcatcher (whose winners number 148), Touchstone, Melbourne, and Bay Middleton, are at the head of the senior division, and Touchstone has no less than 26 of his stock, headed by Orlando, at the stud. Beeswing was very successful as a brood mare; but the same cannot be said of many very high class mares who have worked hard for some seasons on the Turf. Barbelle, the dam of the Flying Dutchman and Van Tromp, left the turf early, and the dam of Alice Hawthorne and Rebecca never had a bridle on.
Next in importance to the judicious selection of sire and dam, is the rearing of the colt which it is intended should make a hunter. It was the remark of a gentleman who kept fox-hounds more than half a century, that "great part of the goodness of a horse goes in at his mouth," and nothing is more true. Nimrod, in his Letters on the Condition of Hunters (p. 223, first edition), says, "It is my confirmed opinion, that unless a colt be what is called 'deformed,' it is in the power of good keep, exercise, and physic, to make him what is termed 'a fine horse,' and one which will sell for a large price, either for harness or the saddle. No one who has not witnessed it, is aware of the improvement in shoulders, thighs, gaskins, &c., from good old oats, accompanied by regular work and proper riding." Breeders of hunters may be assured that such is the case; and that it is of little use to breed colts with the expectation of their making first-rate horses, unless they keep them very well in their colthood. They should also be treated as horses at a very early age. They should be ridden gently, and by a light man, or boy, with good hands, at three years old, across rough ground, and over small fences; and at four they should be shown hounds; but they should only follow them at a distance, and after the fences are broken down; for, if put to take large leaps at that tender age, they are apt to get alarmed, and never make first-rate fences afterwards. Above all things, avoid getting them into boggy ditches, or riding them at brooks; but they should be practised at leaping small ditches, if with water in them the better, in the middle of a field, the rider putting them at them in rather a brisk gallop. This gives them confidence, and the natural result, courage. With respect to the use of the bar, and teaching colts to leap standing over it, the practice is now condemned, and the system of letting them become timber jumpers, by taking it, as it comes, in crossing a country, is preferred, the present rate of hounds not admitting of the time occupied in a standing leap.
Some sportsmen adopt, and we believe with good effect, what is termed the "circular bar." Every description of fence that a hunter is likely to meet with, is placed within a prescribed circle of ground, and in this is the colt lodged, the man who holds him standing upon a stage in the centre. As another man follows him with a whip, he is forced to take his fences at a certain pace; and, in a very short time, a good tempered colt will take them with apparent pleasure.
At five years old it is customary to consider a horse as a hunter; but we are inclined to demur here. It is true, that if a colt has been very well kept, on the hard meat system, he is enabled to go through a good day's work with hounds at five years old, being quite equal to a six-year old, which has been kept on soft food, and not sufficiently forced by corn; yet it is always attended with danger of injury to his joints and sinews, if not to his general constitution; and we cannot pronounce a horse to be a hunter until he has passed his fifth year. As muscular action, however, produces muscular growth, he should not be kept in idleness during his fifth year, but should be ridden to cover, or with harriers, before Christmas; and when the ground gets dry and light in the spring, a good burst with fox-hounds may not do him harm. We do not, however, consider any five-year old horse fitting or safe to carry a gentleman over a country, as he cannot be sufficiently experienced to take a straight line.
We have known some masters of fox-hounds who have preferred purchasing yearling colts, or weanlings, at Michaelmas, to breeding them for their own use.
There are undoubtedly certain advantages attending purchasing yearly colts, with the view of making hunters of them. Such only may be selected as appear calculated for the country they are intended to cross, and the weights they will be called upon to carry; whereas, were the master of hounds to depend on the produce of his own mares, he
might be disappointed in being able to select the number he would require to replace, in due time, the vacancies which occurred annually in his stud. We should consider the sum of 35 or 40 guineas for a good colt, at weaning time, a fair remuneration to the breeder, and well laid out by the purchaser.
Previously to giving directions for the purchase of a full-grown hunter, we shall proceed to exhibit him in his highest form, although we are aware of the difficulty, on certain subjects, of conveying, clearly, an idea from our own mind to that of another. We shall, however, endeavour to make ourselves understood by describing each individual point. As to the form and shape of a hunter's head, as we do not ride upon it, it is not of much consequence, provided it be well hung on; and that is of the very highest importance, not only, as we have shown in the race-horse, on account of his respiration or wind, but unless it be so, he cannot be pleasant to ride. Not only must his jaws be wide, but when we consider that the head of a horse hangs in a slanting position from the extremity of the neck, and that the neck itself projects a considerable distance from the chest, on the muscular strength and proper formation of the neck must also depend whether a horse be light or heavy in hand, and consequently pleasant or unpleasant to ride. A weak or loose neck may not be so material, as we have before observed, to the race-horse; he is generally ridden in a martingal, and in that case always; add to which, his race is soon run. Nevertheless, we like to see the neck of the race-horse rise out of the shoulder with a tapering curve, in which case he is pleasant to ride in his gallop, and, if a hard puller, his jockey has much more power over him than if his neck were loose and low. But, in a hunter, the proper position of his head is a point of the greatest moment, as without it his rider cannot handle him properly at his fences; and if he be not a regular star-gazer, he is always dangerous to ride over a country. The proper junction of the head with the neck, and the carrying of it well or ill, depend chiefly on two particular muscles contained in the neck. The most important of these is called the splenius muscle, which constitutes the principal bulk of the neck above, and its action is sufficiently evident, namely, very powerfully to elevate the head and neck. The principal beauty of the neck, indeed, as well as the carriage of the head, depends on this muscle; and its ample development is a point the sportsman should attend to in the choice of horses that are to carry him with hounds. A certain degree of muscularity of the neck is absolutely necessary in a hunter, and it is greatly promoted by good keep in colthood; also by delaying the period of castration till the second year, which should invariably be done, when the want of this muscularity is apparent in the first. It must, however, be observed, that there is a medium in this muscularity of the neck, although excess is the better extreme of the two; for when the neck of a horse appears, like that of a sheep, to rise out of the chest, and so far from being arched above, and straight below, is hollowed above, and projects below, such a horse is nearly worthless for any pleasurable purpose, as his head cannot, by any means whatever, be got into a proper place.
It has been said that a horse with a long neck will bear heavy on the hand. We do not believe that either the length of the neck, or even the bulk of the head, has any influence in causing this. They are both counterbalanced by the power of the ligament of the neck. The setting on of the head is most of all connected with heavy bearing on the hand; and a short-necked horse will bear heavily, because, from the thickness of the lower part of the neck consequent on its shortness, the head cannot be rightly placed. The head and neck, however, should be proportioned to each other. A short head on a long neck, or a long head on a short neck, would equally offend the eye.
Although length of neck in a hunter is not desirable, length of shoulder is indispensable. Horses have raced well with short upright shoulders; but it is impossible that one so formed, however good he may be in his nature, or even in his general action, can be a safe hunter, and for this reason: A hunter is constantly subject—by down-hill leaps, leaping into soft ground, and getting his fore-legs into grips or unsound ground—to have the centre of gravity thrown forward beyond the base of his legs; and it is more or less recoverable according to the length or shortness of his shoulder. By length of shoulder is meant obliquity of the scapula or shoulder-bone, by which the point of the shoulder is projected forward, and which, added to the obliquity of the scapula, enables the rider to sit considerably behind, instead of nearly over the fore-legs or pillars of support, which, on a short and upright-shouldered horse, he must do. One remark, however, must be made respecting the oblique shoulder. It is sometimes not sufficiently supplied with muscle, with which the upright shoulder generally abounds. We therefore recommend purchasers of young horses for hunters to give the preference to what may appear coarse shoulders, nay, even inclined to be somewhat round or flat on the withers, provided they are accompanied by the necessary and absolutely essential obliquity of the shoulder-bones.
The setting on of the arm—which should be strong, muscular, and long—is of much importance to a hunter. By the length of this part in the hare, as we have already observed, added to the obliquity of her shoulder, she can extend her fore-parts farther than any animal of her size; in fact she strikes nearly as far as the greyhound that pursues her, by the help of this lever. The proper position of the arm, however, is the result of an oblique shoulder. When issuing out of an upright shoulder, the elbow joint, the centre of motion here, will be inclined inward; the horse will be what is termed "in at his elbows," which causes his legs to fall powerless behind his body, and he is seldom able to go well in deep ground. There are exceptions, but they are rare. A full and swelling fore-arm is one of the most valuable points in a horse, for whatsoever purposes he may be required; and although we have occasionally seen hunters with light thighs carry weight well, we never have seen it so carried by horses deficient in their arms.
If sportsmen were to see the knee of the horse dissected, they would pay more attention to the form and substance of it than they generally do. It is a very complicated joint, but so beautifully constructed that it is seldom subject to internal injury. Its width and breadth, however, when considerable, are great recommendations to hunters, as admitting space for the attachment of muscles, and for the accumulation of ligamentous expansions and bands greatly conducive to strength. Below the knee is a point on which we will not say much here, as we have already alluded to it in our remarks on the race-horse; we mean the shank or cannon bone, and its appendages. It can scarcely be too short in a horse that has to carry a heavy man; round legs are almost sure to fail; those of the hunter should be flat, with the back sinews strong and well braced. This constitutes what sportsmen call a "wiry leg."
The fetlock is also a complicated joint, and very liable to injury. In a hunter it should be large and strong. But, as regards his action, the pastern is still more material, and also to his standing sound. Very few horses with short pasterns can go well in deep ground, and for this obvious reason: The action of the joint is destroyed by getting below the surface of the ground, and is of course sooner immersed than when it is longer. But a greater evil than this attends a short pastern; it is the predisposing cause of navicular lameness, particularly in horses carrying weight, owing to the foot being deprived of that elasticity which a longer pastern affords, and which consequently relieves the
concussion on the foot coming to the ground in galloping and leaping, as well as on the hard road. Horses with short, and consequently upright pasterns, cannot be pleasant to ride, and they seldom stand many seasons' work. Excess in either should be avoided, but of the two a hunter is less objectionable from the extreme of length than of shortness in this most material part.
That the foot of the hunter should be wide, and not low or weak at the heel, is also obvious to the meanest capacity, independent of its being the form most conducive to health. The nature of the ground he has to travel over requires at times the widest base he can present to it as a foundation for his great bulk, and thus the farmer carries out his manure upon tender land in a broad cart. Xenophon relates that certain people of Asia were accustomed, when snow lay deep, to draw socks over the feet of their horses, to prevent them sinking in it up to their bellies; and we know why an ox sinks less in soft ground than a horse does. It is because his foot enters it expanded, by means of the division of the claws, and when he draws it out it is contracted. The foot of the hunter, however, should not be too wide, or it may operate against his speed.
The position of the fore-legs of the hunter admits of more latitude than that of his hinder ones, or indeed of any other part of his frame. We have seen brilliant hunters standing in all positions and postures as regards their fore-legs. Some very much over the knees, that is, with the knees bent and projecting outward; many upon very twisted fetlocks, turning the toes out; and a few, though only a few, turning the toes in. In the human frame, a certain squareness in the position of the feet is consistent with strength, as we see in the statues of Hercules, but the lightness of a Mercury is indicated by the direction of the toe outwards. This is to a certain extent the case with the horse. Although, if measured by the standard of perfection, his toe is required to be in a direct line with the point of his shoulder, yet we have seen and heard of some of the speediest and best racers and hunters, the position of whose fore-feet have deviated considerably from this supposed essential line; but the inclination of the toe outwards is so common in horses used for these purposes, that it can scarcely be called a fault. Indeed, some persons argue that a leg so placed affords a broader base to the superincumbent weight than when quite in a line with the shoulder, that is, provided the twist arises from the fetlock, and not from the setting on of the arm. Be this as it may, we are well assured that, provided the hinder legs and quarters are good, a hunter will admit of a considerable deviation from the true line in the fore-legs, and carry his rider brilliantly. It is well known that a much more twisted fore-legged horse could not well be seen than the celebrated Clipper, for many years said to be the most brilliant hunter in Leicestershire; and one of the best hunter-sires in Shropshire had this deformity.
But there is one portion of the fore-quarters of the hunter to which a rule must be applied that will not admit of an exception: he must be deep in his chest or brisket, that is, from the top of the withers to the elbow. Numerous are the narrow, but deep horses, in their "girth," as the term is, that have carried heavy weights in the first style with hounds; but no matter how wide a horse may be, if he have not depth he cannot carry weight, and is very seldom a good-winded horse, even under a light man. One of the greatest compliments, then, that can be paid to a hunter at first sight is, that he appears 2 inches lower than he really is. Such, however, is the case with horses whose growth has been forced in their bodies by good keep when young, and thus they come under the denomination of "short-legged horses," so much esteemed by hard riders. They are likewise, for the most part, better leapers than such as have less growth in the body and stand upon longer legs.
We have before observed, when speaking of the race-
Hunter. horse, that large bone is not required in his cannon or shank (the part from knee to fetlock), neither is it in the hunter. The real power of all animals is in the muscles, sinews, and tendons; and the leg best calculated to carry weight and endure to a good old age is that in which the bone is small, but of a dense and perfect texture, and in which three convexities can be very plainly distinguished, namely, the bone, the elastic ligament behind the bone, called the sinew, and, behind that, the flexor tendons, large, round, and strong. The rare combination of strength with lightness is here beautifully displayed, and is one of the many instances which might be produced to show how nature delights to work with the least possible expense of materials.
The hunter should have length in his shoulders and quarters, and to a certain extent also in his back. It is true that horses with short backs carry weight best up a steep hill, which, as that is the worst method in which this animal can employ his strength (in man it is the best), shows that heavy men should ride short-backed horses. For hunters, however, that are ridden in our best hunting countries, which, previously to being laid down in grass, were thrown up by the plough into high ridges, with deep furrows, must have moderate length of back, or they cannot go smoothly over such ground. Good loins, with width of haunch (the vis a tergo being so necessary in leaping as well as galloping on soft ground), need scarcely be insisted upon; and we now proceed to the hinder-legs, the proper or improper form of which makes the difference between a good or bad hunter, if a horse with badly formed hinder-legs can be called a hunter at all. But a horse with short, straight, and weak thighs, cannot make a good hunter. Even admitting that they are not weak, but short and straight, yet the objection remains, because he cannot, in the latter case, be pulled together in his gallop, nor have his stride collected to enable him to take his fences properly; and, what is not generally known, he is almost certain to be a hard puller. Indeed, some good judges go so far as to assert that horses with straight hinder legs never have good mouths, and there is much truth in the remark, as their form will not admit of their being "pulled together," as the horseman's term is, in their quick paces, and without it no horse is safe. A long and muscular thigh, then, with a clean well-placed hock, is one of the most material points in a hunter, and also one by which the duration of his services may very nearly be measured; as when much out of the true form, either inclining inwards, like the cow, or outwards, like the bandy-legged man, disease is almost certain to attack this very complicated but beautifully contrived joint, when put to severe exertion, especially in soft ground. The shank bone of the hinder leg, below the hock, ought to be equally well supported by sinews and tendons with that of the fore-leg; and the pastern of the hind-leg should resemble that of the fore-leg, moderately long, strong, and oblique.
But such is the paramount importance of the hock in the hunter, that we transcribe the following admirable description of one most material point in it (from part ix. of The Horse, Farmer's series, p. 272):—"The most powerful of the flexor or bending muscles are inserted into the point of the hock or the extremity of the os calcis; and in proportion to the projection of the hock, or, in other words, the length of this bone, will two purposes be effected,—the line of direction will be more advantageous, for it will be nearer to a perpendicular; and the arm of the lever to which the power is applied will be lengthened, and mechanical advantage will be gained to an almost incredible extent. Suppose this bone of the hock to be 3 inches in length, the joint formed by the tibia and the astragalus is evidently the centre of motion, and the weight concentrated about the middle of the shank is the obstacle to be overcome. If the weight be four times as far from the centre of motion as the power, a force equal to four times the weight would raise
it. It is, however, here to be remembered, that it is not merely the weight of the leg which is to be raised, but the weight of the horse, for the time resting upon the leg, and that weight to be propelled or driven forward. At what shall we calculate this? We may fairly suppose that the muscles, whose tendons are inserted into the point of the hock, exert an energy equal to 4000 lb. Let us further suppose that an inch is added to the point of the hock, which will be an addition of one-third to its length; a muscular power of less than 3000 lb. will now effect the same purpose. The slightest lengthening, therefore, of the point of the hock will make an exceedingly great difference in the muscular energy by which the joint is moved, and a difference that will wonderfully tell in a long day's work. On this account, the depth of the hock, or the length of the bone of which we are speaking, is a point of the greatest importance. There is, however, a limit to this. In proportion to the length of this bone, must be the space which it passes over, in order sufficiently to bend the limb; and in that proportion must be the contraction of the muscle, and consequently the length of the muscle, that it may be enabled thus to contract; and, therefore, if this bone were inordinately lengthened, there would require a depth of quarter which would amount to deformity. A hock of this advantageous length is, however, rarely or never met with; and it is received among the golden rules in judging of the horse, that this bone of the hock cannot be too long."
Hunters which carry very heavy men cannot excel in the field, unless they exhibit those just proportions in their limbs and all the moving levers necessary to produce full liberty of action, but not too long a stride. Well placed hinder legs, with wide hips, well spread gaskins, and great depth of chest, are essentials, and as much of the vis a tergo as is consistent with a not unsightly back, commonly called "hog-backed." Well knit joints, short cannon bone, moderately oblique pasterns, with rather large feet, are not only points from which great physical powers may be expected, but they are necessary to the duration of them in the horse we are now alluding to. As, however, it is an axiom in the animal creation that the parts which add to strength diminish swiftness, hunters to carry more than 16 st. well with hounds, at the pace they now run, are always difficult to be procured, and ought to command good prices. The stamp of animal most approved of for this purpose is the short-legged, thick, but well-bred horse, not exceeding 16 hands in height, but appearing to the eye half a hand below that standard. As for his general appearance, it is "handsome is, that handsome does," in this case; and we must not look for beauty in all his points.
Having now described each individual external part of the horse essential to his being a good hunter, we shall, in a few words, exhibit him to the reader's view in what we consider his best form. He should have a light head, well put on, with a firm, but not a long neck; lengthy, and consequently oblique shoulders, with very capacious chest, and great depth of girth; a long, muscular fore-arm, coming well out of the shoulder, the elbow parallel with the body, neither inclining inward nor outward; a short cannon or shank, with large tendons and sinews, forming a flat, not round leg; an oblique pastern, rather long than short, and an open circular foot; the back of moderate length, with well-developed loins and fillets, and deep ribs, making what is termed by sportsmen a good "spur-place." From the loins to the setting on of the tail, the line should be carried on almost straight, or rounded only in a very slight degree. Thus the haunch will be most oblique, and will produce a corresponding obliquity in the thigh-bone, which formation is peculiarly characteristic of the well bred horse. The dock of the tail should be large, the buttocks close together, and the fundament small, and somewhat resembling the front or eye of the pippin apple. The thighs should be
Hunter. muscular and long, rather inclining inwards, with large lean hocks, the points appearing to stand somewhat behind the body, which will bring the lower part of the hind-leg, or shank, under it. The shank, fetlock, and pastern of the hinder-leg, should exactly resemble those of the fore-leg, as also should the foot. The legs should appear short, from the great depth of chest, and well-proportioned substance of the body, or middle-piece.
The stature of the horse is no more absolutely fixed than that of the human body, but a medium height is considered as best for a hunter, say 15 hands, 2 or 3 inches. For one good horse over this height, there are a hundred under it. In fact, there are, in the operations of nature as well as of art, limits which they cannot surpass in magnitude, and no very large animal has strength in proportion to its size. That the horse has not, the pony affords proof, if any other were wanting. Even the heaviest weights find horses about the height we have fixed upon best calculated to carry them. There have been many extraordinary instances of horses, little more than 14 hands high, being equal to the speed of hounds over the strongest counties in England, for example, Mr William Coke's "Pony," as he was called, many years celebrated in Leicestershire, and Mr Green's "Piccolo;" but they are not pleasant to ride, by reason of the fences, when high, appearing higher to the rider than when he is mounted on a taller horse.
Temper and mouth are essential points in a hunter. The former adds much to his value, not only as it contributes to the pleasure and safety of his rider, but a horse of a placid temper saves himself much in a long day's work with hounds, and especially when there is much leaping. Indeed, fretful horses are proverbially soft, and not generally to be depended upon at a pinch, which caused Shakespeare to make them the symbol of false friends. Thus Julius Caesar exclaims,
"Hollow men, like horses, not at hand,
Make gallant show, and promise of their mettle;
But when they should endure the bloody spur,
They fall their crest, and, like deceitful jades,
Sink in the trial."
A hunter should have courage, but nothing more, to make him what he is required to be, namely, not afraid to leap at any fence his rider thinks proper to put him at. His mouth will depend upon two things; first, upon the judgment of the person who breaks him in, in his colthood, and, secondly, upon the position of his hinder legs, but chiefly upon the first. It ought to be endowed with so great sensibility, that the slightest motion of the bit should give him warning, and direct his course, which is significantly implied by Horace, when he said, "the ear of a horse lies in his bridle." It is true, that what we call the "mouth" of a horse, is an artificial feature, at all events, a figurative term for his being easily acted upon by the bridle; but it is a point of the utmost importance in a hunter. Without it, in short, he is absolutely dangerous to ride; for although the skill and power of his rider may prevent his running away, yet he is always in danger of being placed in some unpleasant situation or other by him. In the first place, he cannot be a large fencer, nor safe at all sorts of leaps, if he will not suffer his rider to pull him together, to collect him for the effort of rising at them. Secondly, he is as dangerous in going through gates only partly opened. Thirdly, if the horse immediately before him should fall at a leap, he is very apt to leap upon him, or his rider; and, lastly, his strength is sooner exhausted than that of a horse, perhaps not naturally so good, which is going quietly, and within himself, by his side.
No doubt many of the ancient writers were good judges of horses, although they were deficient, compared with the moderns, in availing themselves of their highest capabili-
ties. Were a purchaser of a hunter to look no further than the first chapter of Zenophon περὶ ἱππικῆς, he would find hints that would be well worthy his attention; and nothing can be more expressive of the evils attending a bad mouth, in a horse of this description, than the following sentence from Pliny, "Equi sine frænīs deformis ipse cursus, rigida cervice, et extento capite, curruntum," which may be thus translated:—"The career of a horse without a bridle is disagreeable, carrying his neck stiff, and his nose in the air. When we consider how often it is necessary to pull up, or to turn a horse very short in crossing inclosed countries, the value, even on the score of comfort, of a good mouth cannot be too highly appreciated by the sportsman.
We now come to the action of the hunter, which, after all, is the main consideration. He should have energy in all his paces, but he may have too much of what is generally called action. Nothing conveys to us a better idea of that which is adapted to his business, than the concluding sentence of a huntsman of former days, when describing to his master a capital run with his hounds. "The old mare," said he, "carried me like oil." The action of the hunter should be smooth, or it will not last. His stride in his gallop should be rather long than otherwise, provided he brings his hinder legs well under his body; and the movement of the fore-legs should be round, but by no means high. Above all things, there should be no "deeling," as it is called, in the limb, coming to the ground; a great obstacle to speed, but often the accompaniment of excessive action in the fore-legs. But the test of action in the hunter, is in what sportsmen call "dirty," that is, in soft, tender ground, or when passing over such as appears dry on the surface, but is not sufficiently so to bear his weight. It is not exactly in the power of the best judges to determine whence this peculiar excellence, which some horses possess over others apparently well-proportioned, arises, for which reason the eye should never be depended upon in the selection of horses for the field. Wisdom here can only be the produce of experience; and many sportsmen have paid dear for it on this particular point. In fact, nothing next to ascending steep hills under great weight, puts the physical powers of a horse to so severe a test as carrying a heavy man, at a quick rate, over a country that sinks under him at every step. Mere strength alone will not do it. It must be the result of a combination of strength with agility, good wind, and speed, to produce which the most perfect arrangement of the acting parts, although the exact symmetry and proportion of them may not be exactly discernible to the eye, are requisite, and, we may be assured, are present. As the beauty of all forms is, in great part, subordinate to their utility, a horse of this description, that is, one which can carry sixteen stone well up to hounds in any or in all countries, at the rate they now run, not only, as has before been observed, commands a very high price, but, to a person who loves to study nature, presents a feast to the eye.
A hunter should be what is called very quick as well as very fast; by which is implied, that he should not only have great speed, but that he should be very quick in regaining his speed after taking his leap, or being pulled up from any other cause. One so gifted will cross a country, especially a close one, in less time than one that is more speedy, but not so "quick on his legs," as jockies term it. It is also very agreeable that a hunter should be safe in his slow paces on the road; and, if a fast trotter, he relieves himself by changing the action of the muscles, when the pace of hounds so far abates as to allow him to break into a trot.
Leaping.
One of the greatest accomplishments in a hunter is being a perfect and safe leaper. The situation of a sportsman
Hunter. riding a horse that is "uncertain," as the term is, at his fences, may be compared with that of the philosopher whom Cicero describes in his Tusculan Questions (5, c. 21) as seated on the throne of Dionysius, gazing upon the wealth and splendour that surrounded him, with a naked sword suspended over his head by a single thread. But a horse following hounds often leaps under very great disadvantages, which accounts for the numerous falls sportsmen get. Putting aside the labour of rising from the ground, which, to the horse, with a weight on his back, must be great, from the earth's attraction and the body's gravity, he has often to take his spring without any fixed point for support; whereas, in most other cases, leaping takes place on a fixed surface, which possesses the power of resistance in consequence of its firmness. Nevertheless, although the surface yield to a certain degree, leaping can still be performed, notwithstanding the retrograde motion of the surface produces a great diminution in the velocity of the leap, compared with that which is made from firm ground; and the velocity is always greater in proportion as the resistance is perfect. Thus it is, that we find horses able to cover much greater obstacles in Leicestershire, and the other grass countries, where the taking off for the leap is generally good and sound, than they can cover in ploughed and marshy districts, where they have not that advantage, from the less firm state of the soil. We shall now endeavour to point out the form most likely to constitute a good leaper.
The very worm that crawls on the ground first carries its contraction from the hinder parts, in order to throw its fore parts forward; and it is chiefly from the ris a tergo, or strength of back, and hinder quarters, that the power of leaping in a horse is derived. It must, however, be admitted that oblique shoulders give him a great advantage, by enabling him to extend his fore quarters; but if his loins be loose and weak, and his hinder legs ill placed, with weak hocks, he cannot make, in any one's hands, a safe and perfect leaper. But the position of his head has something to do with it. A plank placed in equilibrio cannot rise at one end unless it sinks at the other; and although a horse in light harness cannot, for appearance sake, carry his head too high, provided he be obedient to the rein, the hunter should carry his low. A colt, running wild, never raises his head when he leaps, but rather lowers it, and so should the hunter; and he is always less liable to fall in galloping over a country when he carries his head low; likewise, in horses with lengthy shoulders, the seat of the rider is rather benefited than injured by it.
The sort of fence that stops hunters more than any other description of obstacle, is a wide brook; and, like all other wide places, it takes a good deal out of him, if he clears it. Lengthy horses are the best brook jumpers; but they require good loins and hinder quarters as well, and, above all things, courage. Unless a horse takes a wide brook in his stroke, he is almost sure to be in it; for which reason he is generally ridden fast at it, and, for the most part, not allowed to see it till he comes close to it. Immense space has been covered by horses when jumping brooks, particularly when there has been a difference of elevation of the banks in favour of the horse. We have heard of thirty feet and upwards from hind foot to hind foot; but half that space in water is considered a good brook, and even if the banks are sound, stops a great part of the field. When unsound, it requires a horse coming under the denomination of a "good brook-jumper" to clear it without a fall, and particularly if towards the end of a run.
To be a good timber leaper is a great desideratum in a hunter, although many horses are great timber leapers, but, from their form, can never make good hunters. It only requires a short backed, truss-horse for this purpose; and he can dispense with the general length so necessary to the complete hunter. Good and well-formed thighs, low-
ever, are necessary. For those hunting countries, such as Cheshire, where the hedge is generally placed on a bank or "cop," as it is there styled, rather a short but very active horse performs best. But he must be very good in his hinder legs, and very quick in the use of them. Wall jumpers come within the same class with timber jumpers as to make and shape.
There is one faculty in which the horse is wanting, that would, if he possessed it, give him a great advantage in leaping. In the human species, the power and influence of feeling are inherent, in a great degree, to the very tips of the fingers; but the horse has no proper organ of feeling or touch. When a man takes his spring for a leap, or leaps on the top of any substance, he has a distinct and certain sense or knowledge of the nature of the ground from which he has sprung, and of the substance on which he has alighted; but, from the insensible nature of the horse's hoof, such feeling is, in a great measure, denied to him, and indispensably so too. Still, however, there are a few instances upon record of horses going very well over a country even after having undergone the operation of neurotomy, by which all sensibility, from the fetlock downwards has been destroyed.
The necessity for the thorough-bred horse in the field is belied, by the experience of all unprejudiced sportsmen, and in Leicestershire, where the best studs are to be found, very many of the hunters have a bend sinister in their escutcheon. But this perhaps arises from three causes. First, there is a difficulty in procuring full-bred horses to carry even moderate weights, and speed is but a second attribute to a hunter. He must have sundry other qualifications, and the most prevailing objections to the thorough-bred horse are generally these: He is apt to be deficient in substance to carry high weights over rough and deep countries, without trespassing too much on the virtue of his high descent. Secondly, he is inclined, and especially if he have been trained, to be shy of facing rough and thorny fences, by reason of the delicate nature of his skin, rendered so by repeated sweats in clothes, when in training. It often happens, indeed, that even the cheering influence of hounds, which has so much effect on other horses, will not induce him to take them. In fact, which may appear extraordinary, he does not appear to have in the field the courage of the half-bred horse. Lastly, his feet are apt to be small, in which case he sinks deeper in soft ground than does the lower-bred horse, whose feet are larger and wider, and thus suffers more than the latter does, in crossing a deep country.
As for his powers of endurance under equal sufferings, they doubtless would exceed those of the cockail, and being, by his nature what is termed a "better doer" in the stable, he is sooner at his work again than the other. Indeed, there is scarcely a limit to the work of full-bred hunters of good frame and constitution and temper.
A sportsman, partial to thorough-bred hunters, should either breed them, or purchase them, not exceeding two years old. If he breeds them, he should select large and bony mares, putting them to horses who have hunting action, such as Tramp had; and, if he buy them, it will be his fault if he do not buy those of the right stamp. From their never having been trained, but ridden over rough ground in their colthood, they would have freer and higher action, and, when castrated at a proper age, would very rarely fail making first-rate hunters. The reason for subjecting them to the enervating operation of castration is, that by far the greater number of entire horses, used as hunters, are either dangerous in a crowd, and when pressed upon in gateways; or given to refuse their fences, when they feel themselves somewhat distressed; and, if once well tired, are not to be depended upon afterwards. The late Earl of Lonsdale's Julius Cæsar was, nevertheless, a good instance to the contrary; and so was Mr. Arkwright's Dr
Hunter. Faustus. If free from these defects, they are doubtless superior to either geldings or mares.
Purchase of a Hunter.
Although it may not be necessary that a person should be perfectly acquainted with the mechanical structure of the horse's frame, according to the laws of nature, to render him a good judge of a hunter, yet, fortunately for such as have them to sell, vast numbers of persons purchase hunters from very slight experience of them, regardless of the proverb of, "he hath a good judgment who doth not rely on his own." There is also another proverb, prevalent, we believe, in Spain, which well applies here: "He that would buy a mule without a fault must not buy one at all;" and, although faultless hunters may be as rare as faultless riders of them, we will offer a few hints to a person in the act of purchasing one, addressing him in the colloquial style.
First, bear in mind the country you are about to hunt in, whether flat, hilly, firm, soft, open, or inclosed, and refer to the remarks we have made on the sort of horse we have adapted to each; only be assured that in an open country, especially if a billy one, nothing has a chance with a thorough-bred horse, in good form, and not over-weighted. Secondly, consider well your weight, and be sure to have at least a stone to spare. A light man on a light horse throws away all the advantage of being light, and can go no faster, or leap larger fences, than a heavy man on a strong horse, for strength will be served. Until you try him, it is hard to say what horse will make a hunter, but the following indices may induce you to try him:—If he appear well-bred, with a loose, bright skin, which may be called his complexion; observe that his hair does not stand hollow from the skin, particularly about the poll of his neck. If you find him standing over a good deal of ground, it is a sure sign that he has got length where it ought to be; not in the back, but from the obliquity of his shoulders, and the arm being set on at the extreme point of his shoulder, which so much contributes to the act of extension of the fore parts in galloping, leaping, and clearing grips. Next examine minutely his thighs and hocks, being especially careful to observe the position of the point of the hock bone. Above all things, avoid a short, or an overtopped horse. The former will never carry you to your satisfaction, however good he may be in his nature; and the latter, from being too heavy for his legs, will seldom last many years. As for the minor points, common observation alone is wanting. Have his head placed in such a situation as will enable you to satisfy yourself that he has perfectly organized eyes, free from incipient cataract, sometimes rather difficult to be detected; and as for his age, there are but two ways of satisfying yourself on that point. By his teeth till about eight years old; afterwards by the state of his legs, which are, in fact, the best test of his value, the best proof of what he has done, and the sure source of speculation as to what he may hereafter be expected to do. Observe, also, his joints, that no material injury has been done to them by blow, &c., and that they are strong.
But the purchaser of a hunter must not trust to his eye. Neither must he be satisfied with him, how well soever he may gallop with him upon sound land. It is the peculiar excellence of "going well through dirt" that renders a horse valuable for all our best hunting countries; and no man can assure himself that a horse has this peculiar excellence, until he puts him to the test. The best method of doing it is this: The rider should put him along at a good pace, with a slack rein, upon sound ground, letting him find himself all at once upon that which is soft and holding. If, on quitting the former, he cringes more than might be expected under the weight, and shortens his stroke much, he must not purchase him for a hunter. He may go well
over a light, down country, but he will never distinguish himself over a heavy one, as he will be going in distress, when other horses are going comparatively at their ease. Horses possess gradations of excellence in this natural qualification, or gift, more than in any other, but in it consists the summum bonum in a hunter; inasmuch as, whatever may be his other good qualities, they are all useless, when the acting parts are, from this cause, deep ground, easily over-fatigued. With regard to his wind, he must not judge hastily of that, in a horse not in work. Should he not perceive anything like whistling in his respiration when he puts him along at a quick pace, and his chest is capacious and deep, and his head well set on, he is not to reject him in case he appears blown by a short gallop. Condition and work will rectify that; but many a good hunter has been rejected on this account, by persons not taking into consideration the state of his bodily condition, in a trial of this nature.
The price of the hunter varies with the times, and, no doubt, is as much regulated by the price of wheat as the quarter loaf is. During the war prices, the sum of 1000 guineas was occasionally given, and that of 500 guineas frequently. From 150 guineas to 300 guineas now commands a first-rate hunter. But first-rate horses, in all ages of the world, have ever produced extravagant prices; and it is recorded of Alexander the Great, that he gave four Roman talents for the celebrated Bucephalus, by mounting which the young prince gave the first token of the skill and daring which carried him through so many difficulties.
THE HACKNEY.
Under this term are comprised the following:—The Cover Hack, the Pack Hack, the Lady's Horse, the Roadster, the Cob, the Galloway, and the Pony.
The difficulty of procuring really good hacks is admitted by all persons who have kept them for the various purposes of either business or pleasure, and for the following obvious reasons. First, very few people try to breed hackneys, therefore, although we require them to be nearly perfect in shape and action (and perfect they should be to be "really good hacks"), they may be said to be failures in the breeding stud after all. Secondly, by reason of their appearing to be failures in their colthood, they are not forced into good shape, as more promising young horses are, by high keep and care. Lastly, if a man has a really good hack, he is unwilling to dispose of it at the price generally given for such animals. But a question arises, What is a good hack? It cannot be answered but with reference to another question, namely, What description of person is he to carry? The horse that a sober citizen of London or Edinburgh would call a perfect hackney to carry him to his country seat, would not be worth five shillings to a Newmarket or a country jockey, or as a cover hack to a Leicestershire or Warwickshire sportsman. We will commence, then, with the cover hack, and describe the others in their turns.
The cover hack of the present day is very difficult to be procured, because he must unite, with the good qualities of the roadster, the requisites and accomplishments of the hunter. In fact, he must be a hunter in miniature; and after all, the form of the hunter is the best calculated for a roadster. He must be fast in all his paces, able to gallop well on deep or soft ground, and equal to carrying his rider over moderately sized fences; and if taught to leap timber, standing, his value is proportionally increased. But, above all things, he must go from 12 to 15 miles in the hour, when wanted, without showing any symptoms of distress; and he is too often unnecessarily called upon to perform much more than this, by his owner delaying the period of his leaving home in the morning, for the purpose of
Hackney. meeting hounds. It may also be observed, that it is not every sportsman who keeps two cover hacks, although he may keep six or eight hunters; and it often happens that the cover hack does more work than any horse in the stable, although in justice it should be stated, that the same care in the stable is now taken of him as of the best hunter in it.
Hackney. Unless to carry a great weight, the cover hack should be all but thorough-bred, if he cannot be procured of quite full blood; with excellent legs and feet, lengthy and elevated shoulders, and with a susceptibility of mouth that will not only enable his rider to keep him well on his haunches, to guard against danger when going fast on all sorts of roads, but as tending to lessen the fatigue of riding him; and the
strength of his rider should be reserved for his day's diversion after hounds. The chief pace of a cover hack should be the canter, and his temper should not be overlooked, for if fractious, and a puller, he will add much to the fatigue of a severe day's sport. A horse of this description, nearly 15 hands high, young and sound, will command from £60 to £100. The other points essential to a good road hackney, which will be noticed hereafter, apply equally to the cover hack.
The park hack of the present day is the race-horse in miniature. To be quite à la mode, he should be thorough-bred, with a very neat head, beautifully set on, and a switch tail; and so well bitted as to be ridden with a slack rein. He should have much liberty in his walk, which, and the canter, should be his chief paces. He must have great obliquity of shoulder, with a corresponding true formation of hinder quarters, and above all, the well-bent hinder legs; in which case, if the position of his fore legs enable him to put his feet down properly, which will be explained in describing the general action of the hackney, he will be, if good tempered, and not given to fret, the perfect park hack.
The lady's horse is, after all, the most difficult to obtain, because he ought to approach very near to perfection. His paces, mouth, and temper, should each be proportioned to the power and capability of his rider; and he should be proof against alarm from either noises or sights, which otherwise might cause him to run away. This description of horse should likewise be well bred, as in that case his action will be easier, and his appearance and carriage more in character with the generally elegant appearance of his rider. His pace should be the canter; the trot causes an ungraceful movement in the person of a woman, to enable
her to rise to it; and if she do not rise to it, she is much shaken in her seat. Neither is the form of the side-saddle fitted for the trot; and the canter of a well-bitted horse is more safe, because his haunches are more under him in that pace than they can be in the trot. A good, bold, walk, however, with the head in proper place, is essential to a horse that has to carry a woman; and his action should be very true, that is, he should not "dish," or throw, his legs outward, as the term is, in any of his paces, or he will cover the lower garments of his rider with mud when the roads are wet and dirty. To provide against the latter inconvenience, however, all horses intended for this purpose, should not be much under 15½ hands in height, which size corresponds with the lengthened drapery of a lady's riding costume. As a preventive against accidents, ladies' horses, however well broken and bitted, should not be too highly fed; and, if at all above themselves, should be ridden by a careful servant, with good use of his hands, before ladies mount them. It is, however, an acknowledged fact, that horses go more quietly under women than they do under men, which is accounted for by the lightness of their hand, and the backward position of the body in the saddle. We have, in fact, known several instances of horses being very hard pullers with men, standing up in their stirrups, and, consequently, inclining their bodies forward, but going perfectly temperate and at their ease under women.
The power and parts conducive to action in the roadster, or hackney, are derived much from the same shape and make as we have shown to be best fitted for the hunter; but it is desirable that he should be more up in his forehand than the hunter is required to be, as such form gives confidence to the rider. The most dangerous form he can
Hackney. exhibit, if we may be allowed such a term, is, with his fore legs standing too much behind the points of his shoulders, and those points loaded. Even with the best-formed hinder legs, the centre of gravity being thrown so far forward beyond the pillars of support, is, in this case, with great difficulty preserved on the horse making a stumble; but with straight hinder legs, a horse so formed in his fore quarters is only fit for harness, where he can recover himself by the assistance of his collar, having no weight on his back. Provided a hackney do not cut his legs, by striking one against the other, which is oftener caused by imperfection in the upper than the lower extremity of the legs, he is not to be rejected because he may turn out his toes a little, some of the very best, fastest, and safest road-horses being so formed. Cutting the hinder legs is a worse failing than cutting the fore ones, as it is a certain sign of weakness; and although we may be told that shoeing will prevent it, we bring to our recollection the old adage, that "a goose always goes like a goose." What is called the "speedy cut" with the fore legs, arises from excess of action, and is a great objection, by reason of the wound given to the leg, which is struck just under the knee. Many good hunters, especially when ridden in hilly countries, such as parts of Surrey, where they traverse the hills on loose and stony ground, are subject to this failing, which is remedied by a boot; and, after all, the danger attributed to speedy cut, in throwing horses down, is much overrated.
The size for a road hackney must be regulated by the size of the person to ride him; but, generally speaking, from 14 to 14½ hands, is the proper height. His strength must also be thus calculated, for a light man does not ride pleasantly on a horse equal to double his weight. But a road hackney should have strength of shoulder, with a round barrel, but not a large carcass, which only wears out his legs. His constitution and feeding can only be proved upon trial; but there are certain indices, such as deep ribs, hardy colour, brown muzzle, &c., which very rarely deceive us. As to the necessity of well-placed hinder legs, it is most clearly shown by the answer given to the following question:—If a horse make a serious blunder forward, and the centre of gravity of his body fall beyond the pillars of support, and is for a moment lost, what restores the equilibrium? Is it merely the chuck under the chin to an animal of his bulk and weight, and that "chuck" given perhaps by the weak, powerless wrist of a feeble old man, or delicate young lady? No: the main effect of the bit, or curb, in this case is, first, warning the horse of his danger; and, next, by the momentary raising of his head, he is better able to bring a hinder leg instantly to his assistance, by advancing it under his body, and thus restoring the equilibrium. In the walk, in fact, the horse actually begins to move by advancing the hinder leg under the body, before the fore leg quits the ground; and if he did not do so, there would be no equal support for the body, during the suspension of the fore leg in the air; nor could the body be moved forwards, until the hinder leg had, by quitting its station, taken a new point of support. Seeing then, that in the walk, as in all other paces, the centre of gravity in the horse is maintained, as well as the body propelled, by the action of the hinder legs, the greatest attention should be paid to the position and action of them in the hackney, as the best safeguard against his falling. We should observe, then, when he is exhibited to our view, that, in his walk, the hinder foot oversteps the fore foot, at least a shoe's length, which a horse with straight ill-formed hinder legs cannot do; and if such action be accompanied by generally good hind quarters, it is a great indication of safety, as far as one-half of the body of the horse is concerned. But as the false step is made, not with the hinder, but the fore leg, the chief safeguard against falling is to be found elsewhere, namely, first, in the length of the shoulder, which throws
the centre of gravity further back than a short one; and, secondly, proceeding also from the free use of the shoulder, in the act of setting the fore foot down on the ground. It is a general but very mistaken notion, that the safety of a roadster depends upon his lifting his fore feet high from the ground, when he is said to "go well above his ground;" whereas it all depends on the manner in which he places them down upon it. Not only are the highest goers often the most unsafe to ride, for, when they do fall, they fall with a violence proportioned to the height of their action; but, although we do not advocate such extremes, there are thousands of instances of horses going very near to the ground, and never making a trip. It is, however, a well established fact, that if the form of a horse's shoulder, and the position of the fore leg, enable him to put his foot to the ground flat, with the heel well down, his lifting up his foot high is not at all necessary; whereas, on the other hand, if, by an improper position of the leg, issuing out of a short, upright, ill-formed shoulder, the toe touches the ground first, and, as it were, digs into it; no matter how high such a horse may lift up his leg, in any of his paces, he will always be dangerous to ride. And this will be clearly shown, if we consider the position of the fore leg, when off the ground, or in action. It is bent in the form of a C, and the foot suspended in the air, turning inwards, with a curve towards the body. When in this state, were the foot to come in contact with a stone, or any other substance, it would pass over it without resistance, the limb being at that time in a flaccid state; but when it approaches the ground, the limb being extended, and having the whole weight of the fore quarters about to be thrown upon it, if it strike against a stone, or any hard substance, then the case is greatly altered, and a stumble is the inevitable consequence. The base now requires to be firm and even, which it can only be by the foot being placed flat upon the ground. Man, in fact, walks very near the ground, but his toe rarely strikes it. If it did so frequently, he would soon become a cripple, putting falling out of the question. His action proceeds from his hips; that of the horse, as regards the fore legs, from his shoulders; but the principle is the same with each; each is a piece of curiously-wrought mechanism, and according to the correctness of that mechanism is their action true. A wrong notion, however, prevails here, which may lead the purchaser of a hackney astray. It has been asserted by various writers, that if the shoe of a roadster be found worn at the toe, it is a sure sign of his possessing the dangerous action to which we have alluded. This is false; many horses wear at the toe, solely by the act of picking up the foot, and quite independently of placing it down. That many hackneys, however, fall from their shoes being neglected and suffered to wear too much at the toes, we are well aware, as well as from their pressing upon the heels and quarters, from the want of being removed in proper time. When a horse is given to wear at the toe, the wearing part should be steeled.
The best method of ascertaining the manner of putting down the foot, on which we have shown the safety of a hackney depends, is, to ride a horse with a slack rein, on a foot-path, on which there are trifling undulations, scarcely perceptible, but sufficient for our purpose. If he walk smoothly over such ground, and do not strike it with his toe, we may be sure he puts his foot properly down, and will not, from that cause, be a tumble-down. But there are various ways in which horses fall on the road; bad shoeing, as we have already said, being one of them, and bad condition another. What is called a false step, very different from a stumble, may occur to any horse, and is occasioned by his accidentally putting his foot on a loose stone, that rolls away from under it, when, of course, his footing is lost. In this case, his chance of recovering himself is in his shoulders being oblique and lengthy (for upright shoulders are always short)
Hackney. and well placed hinder legs. Thrushes and corns are likewise the cause of stumbling; as likewise is starting, one of the worst failings a hackney can have. In some horses it is a nervous affection, rather difficult to account for in animals of such strength of frame; and often arises from imperfectly formed eyes, such as flatness of the cornea, or outward surface of the eye, generally a small one, causing short-sightedness. In the latter case, this fault in a hackney may be guarded against, by employing a veterinary surgeon to inspect him previous to purchase.
The old adage of "no foot, no horse," applies particularly to the road-horse. The hunter can cross a country upon feet that are very far from good; and by the help of bar-shoes, the coach-horse, with no weight on his back, and with the support the harness gives him, gets pretty comfortably over his stage on unsound feet; but the road-horse must have sound feet. Previously to the use of horse-shoes, the value of a solid hoof was so great as to have been made the image by which the Prophet Isaiah set forth the strength and excellence of the Babylonish cavalry, "whose hoofs," says he, "shall be counted as flints." Both Homer and Virgil mention it as an indispensable requisite in a good horse, the latter making it to resound as it strikes the ground—
"et solito graviter sonat ungula cornu."
We are not going here to enter on a long discussion upon the foot, but only to observe, that the wide hoof and expanded heel of the hunter is not so essential to the road-horse as many persons suppose. Indeed the hoof that has been found to stand severe road-work best, is one rather high at the heel, and not very wide, provided the pastern above do not approach too near the perpendicular; forming what is called "an upright pastern," which, by the jar the foot receives from it, when it comes to the ground, is nearly certain to produce disease. The strong foot, however, of which we are speaking, is one that requires care, by being frequently drawn out with the knife, to prevent its becoming too strong; and by giving moderate pressure to the frogs, to prevent the heels getting nearer together than we find them, and they already approximate to contraction in a foot of this description. The just form of the hoof in front, upon which mainly depends its form behind, is said by Clarke to be at an elevation from the ground of 33°; and we are inclined to think, that a much greater elevation than this would approach too near the perpendicular, for any kind of foot. As the inner heel or quarter has more weight thrown upon it than the outer, it is the principal seat of corns and sandcracks, for which reason great care should be taken that an even bearing to the whole of the crust be given by the smith to the foot of the hackney, previously to his setting on the shoe, the inner heel being given to wear away more than the outer on that account.
In the action of the hackney consists his chief merit. It should be smooth, and with not too long a step, or stride, or he will tire. He should also go straight on his legs, as the term is; for although horses that dish their legs may be, and commonly are, safe goers, yet they are disagreeable to ride in wet roads, as they cover the rider with mud. As we have already observed, the action of a hackney should not be high, as that tends to fatigue the rider and destroy himself; and if he puts his foot well down on the ground, he will never fall by reason of his action being low, and he will last the longer for its being low.
The paces of the hackney are in a great measure dependent on the will of his owner. The walk and the canter are most essential to what may be called the pleasure hackney; but for general purposes, the trot is the most useful and available pace in a roadster, and one in which he will
continue longer, according to the rate he is going at, than in the canter. There are instances, however—and here is perfection in a hackney—of horses with very oblique shoulders, and excellent hinder legs, being able to carry their riders in a canter, over every variation of road, downhill as well as uphill, without offering to break into a trot, for a great distance of ground; and although not appearing to go more than at the rate of nine miles in the hour, are really going twelve. This is the result of the perfection of the points to which we have alluded, and can never be looked for in horses of a contrary make, whose shoulders are short and stiff, and their hinder legs straight. Above all things, what is called "fighting action" in a hackney should be avoided; neither ought the fore leg to be thrown out with a dart, as it is always attended with a dwelling or temporary suspension of the foot previously to its reaching the ground.
Most horses have some peculiarities about them, if not absolute "tricks," as vicious practices in horses are designated. Starting has already been noticed; but plunging is still more dangerous, as in that case a horse seldom stops until he have unseated his rider, at least made many attempts to do so, or thrown himself upon the ground. This latter trick often proceeds, not from sheer vice, but from a sense of pain in the horse, from being too tightly girthed; or from the to him very unpleasant sensation of a cold saddle, with a weight upon it, being pressed to his back; and having once taken a dislike to it, he is very apt to continue it. Against each of these evils it is in our power to provide. Against the first, by not girding the horse tightly, for the doing of which there is no good reason; and against the second, by having the saddle put on an hour before the horse is wanted, in which time it will become warm, and not disagreeable to the skin of his back, which, in some horses, we know to be extremely susceptible. It is upon this principle that the collars are left day and night upon such road coach-horses as are given to "jib" at starting, the consequence of tender shoulders. But there is one failing to which hackneys are subject, not proceeding from vice, but still attended with danger, as it is often the cause of their falling; and we will endeavour to exhibit this failing. We need scarcely insist upon a good mouth, with neck and head in good place, in the best description of roadhorse; nevertheless, if he will not suffer his rider to avail himself of those advantages, they are useless to him. Such, however, is the case when a hackney, as he is going along in his fast paces, throws his head backwards, which he has always the power to do, his rider being unable to prevent him. Twofold danger attends this fault. First, when in the act of doing it he sees not where he places his feet; secondly, his rider loses his mouth for the moment, and in that moment he may fall. Independently of this, it gives the rider the idea that the horse is becoming fatigued, and doubtless it is an indication to that effect. Our idea, then, of a perfect hackney to carry a gentleman is this: A well-bred, short-legged, lengthy horse, with very good legs and feet, not under fourteen nor above fifteen hands high, that will walk four miles in the hour, trot eleven or twelve, and, if wanted, will go fifteen in that time in a canter or hand-gallop, without once throwing up his head, or requiring to be pulled up. We are, of course, supposing him to be in good condition, and in strong work, or it would not be fair to exact so much from him. But it is only in cases of necessity that any horse should be made to perform the latter task; for we are averse to trespassing unnecessarily upon the powers and capabilities of so noble an animal. On the contrary, we recommend every indulgence that can be granted to him on a journey, and especially in hot weather. At all times, indeed, it is our interest to do so; but, in very hot weather, a few sips of soft water, often given, keep off
Hackney. fever, and replenish the loss he sustains by exhaustion from excessive perspiration.
One word more respecting action. We are no advocates for very fast trotting. It forces the animal to the very extent of his powers, which, of course, wears him out; it induces his owner either to be constantly displaying these powers in private, or matching him against time in public. Add to this, fast trotting is not a gentlemanlike pace; that is, it has not a gentlemanlike appearance, neither is it agreeable to the rider. This is apparent at first sight, when we follow two horsemen on a road, one on a fast trotter, and the other on a good canterer; although going at the same rate, the cantering horse and his rider are both much more at their ease. With the ancient Romans, indeed, a trotting horse was called a tormentor. Nevertheless, we admit that fast trotting is a proof of action, in excess, but of a peculiar nature, and is, perhaps more than any other, transmitted from sire to son, as the produce of the various Norfolk and American trotters have shown. The amble is a pace very little known in England, although very general on the Continent, where the act of rising in the stirrups by the horseman, in the trot, is not practised. We wonder, however, that horses are not oftener broken to this pace than they are, for the use of women, or of men unequal to fatigue. Although the amble is not allowed to be a pace in the manège—the walk, trot, and gallop being all—it is said to be the first pace of the horse when a foal, but when he has strength to trot, he quits it. Another peculiarity attends it. A horse, we know, can be put from a trot to a gallop without stopping, but he cannot be forced from an amble to a gallop without a halt.
The Pack-Horse.—This description of horse is not now in use. His capabilities were prodigious in carrying weight, but were abused by being trespassed upon. When crossed with the heavy cart-horse, a most useful breed for draught was produced, as also what was called the farmer's hackney, that is, a sturdy animal between the cart-horse and the hackney, useful for all purposes of agriculture, as well as for carrying his owner, and always ready to give help upon a pinch, either in the plough, the harrow, or the harvest-cart.
The Cob.—The word cob is one of new mintage in the sporting world, signifying a powerful, short-legged horse, about fourteen hands high, without any pretensions to blood, but able to carry a great weight, at a certain pace, on the road. He is generally the produce of a light, active cart-mare, and either a thorough-bred or half-bred stallion; and, failing to grow in height, often increases in lateral growth to substance equal to that of the old pack, or miller's horse, of former days. When gifted with action, combined with good shape and appearance, this description of horse is much sought after in London, as also in the country, and often sells for a hundred pounds, to carry heavy elderly gentlemen. The attempt to breed him, however, is a hazardous one, as in case of fault in his action for the saddle, he is not suitable to the coach-horse market, the present rate of travelling requiring more lofty as well as higher bred cattle.
The term Galloway now applies to any horse not exceeding 14 hands in height, although it originated with a breed peculiar to the county of Scotland known by that name. In the early days of English racing, there were several capital thorough-bred Galloways in training, at the head of which was the Bald Galloway, sire of Cartouch, and also of the Carlisle Gelding, who, as the Stud-Book informs us, "was remarkable for having supported the fatigue of running as a trial horse in private, and with success in public, till the age of eighteen, at which period, after winning a heat near Stilton, in Huntingdonshire (1731), he broke his leg, and died." The celebrated Mixbury
Galloway, of the middle of last century, was only 13 hands 2 inches in height. Charger.
Previously to the improved system of coaching, and the cheapness and expedition of that mode of travelling, the well-bred galloway was the favourite hackney of jockeys, graziers, horse-dealers, and cattle jobbers, and in fact of all light weights who had occasion to travel long distances on the road in a short space of time; and no description of horse is better adapted to the purpose. Many years since, there was a little entire horse in Devonshire, called Katter-felto, the sire of many most extraordinary galloways, to whose labours on the road, indeed, there appeared scarcely to be any limit.
The Pony.—A horse is called a pony when under the height of 13 hands, 4 inches to the hand. It is difficult to account for this diminutive breed, unless we believe it to have been imported from countries farther north than Great Britain, which appears probable from the fact of ponies being found in greater abundance in Scotland and Wales than in any other part of the island; the effect, no doubt, of climate. In Ireland they are very rare.
There is no animal that improves in form and character so much as the pony does from the effect of good grooming and high keep. A real Welsh mountain pony, in very good condition, especially if not castrated, is a perfect war-horse in miniature, uniting almost every good property his species possesses. As a proof of one essential quality, we can state upon authority, that the Earl of Oxford had a mare pony, got by the Clive Arabian, her dam by the same horse, out of a Welsh mare pony, which could beat any of his racers 4 miles at a feather weight. Whether Welsh, Scotch, or Hampshire (New Forest), ponies have properties belonging to them, which should attract the notice of the hippopathologist, among the most prominent of which are the following:—They are never lame in the feet, nor become roaners. A broken-winded pony is a very rare sight, and they live to the extreme of old age, if not unfairly treated. They are also very little susceptible of disease, in comparison with other horses; and as for their powers of endurance, they stagger belief. A rare instance of the latter excellence may be produced, from the well-known fact of the pony Sir Teddy, only 12 hands high, accompanying the royal mail from London to Exeter, and arriving in that city fifty-nine minutes before it, distance 172 miles, in twenty-three hours and twenty minutes. It may scarcely be necessary to state that he carried no weight, being led between two horses all the way; nevertheless it was a task that we think no full-grown horse would have performed. A correct likeness of this pony was painted by the elder Marshall, of Newmarket. In 1784 a Shetland pony, 11½ hands high, carried a rider, weighing five stones, from Norwich to Yarmouth and back, 44 miles, in three hours and forty-five minutes. As a proof, also, of their powers in crossing a country, the fact may be stated of the late Sir Charles Turner riding a pony 10 miles in forty-seven minutes, and taking thirty leaps in his course, for a wager of 1000 guineas with the late Duke of Queensberry, then Earl March. During the drawing of the Irish lottery, the expresses from Holyhead to London were chiefly conveyed by ponies, at the rate of nearly 20 miles in the hour.
THE CHARGER.
No kind of horse, no animal, indeed, of any sort, makes so prominent a figure in history, sacred or profane, as "the goodly horse of the battle," or war-horse. The description of him by Job is admitted to exceed the powers of human eloquence; "and," as M. Rollin says of it, "every word would bear an explication to display its merits." The Guardian (No. 86) has a very ingenious critique upon it;
Charger. and Bochart devotes seventeen pages to this and all the other passages in Scripture in which the horse is mentioned. Virgil's representation of him, in his third Georgic, is considered as the nearest approach to that of the sacred writer; and the speech, in the tenth Æneid, of the hero Mezentius to his favourite charger, when on the point of sallying forth to avenge the death of his son, is not exceeded, in the pathetic, by any other passage in the poem. Homer is blamed for his too frequent allusions to the horse; but the history of all wars produces materials for panegyrics on this noble animal. The far-famed Bucephalus is said to have preserved the life of Alexander, by carrying him out of reach of the enemy, although he had received his mortal wound, and dropped down dead immediately on his (Alexander's) alighting from his back. In the battle which was to decide the fate of Persia, on the ground upon which the great Nineveh once stood, the merit of the victory was chiefly ascribed by the Byzantine historians, not to the military conduct, but to the personal valour of their favourite hero, in which his horse bore his share. "On this memorable day," says the eloquent Gibbon, "Heraclius, on his horse Phallas, surpassed the bravest of his warriors. His lip was pierced with a spear, the steed was wounded in the thigh, but he carried his master safe and victorious through the triple phalanx of the barbarians." How many British soldiers have owed the preservation of their lives to the courage and docility of their horses.
The movement of turning being the most difficult with the horse, by reason of the inflexible nature of his backbone, the one selected for a charger should have great freedom of action, having his hinder legs well bent under his body, so that he may be easily thrown upon his haunches; also much liberty in his shoulders, and pliancy in the muscles of the neck; in which case he will seldom fail in having the proper requisites for his calling. The position of his hinder legs, however, is most particularly insisted upon, because, should they be straight, that is, not inclining inwards from the hock, after the form of the ostrich's leg, he will with great difficulty be made the supple, short-turning, handy animal that he ought to be, to render him perfectly available to his rider, at the head of his regiment, or in the ranks. Perhaps those horses which were destined to mount our ancient nobility, or courteous knights of old, for feats of chivalry, and gained them the palm in that field of romantic honour, were more highly "dressed," as the term is, in the manège, than an officer's charger of these days should be; nevertheless, as Colonel Peters observes, in his Treatise on Equitation, London, 1836:—"Although it might spoil a good horse for military purposes to form him perfectly after the higher manège principles, yet he would be equally unfit for that duty if he were left in a raw and ignorant state."
Amongst the ancient Greeks, all horses, as well as all men, were strictly examined before they were admitted into the cavalry; and the precedent cannot be too closely followed. It is well known, that in the various campaigns of the last war, several British officers lost their lives, in consequence of being mounted on chargers not equal to their weight over every description of ground. In one particular instance, a colonel of a light dragoon regiment was cut down in retreating, by reason of his handsome, but powerless charger, being unable to gallop with him over a deeply-ploughed field. At the battle of Waterloo, the ground became excessively wet and soft, owing to continued rain; and, in consequence of it, the Duke of Wellington gave a large price to an officer on his staff for a fine, powerful mare, which had been purchased out of an English fox-hunting stud. In fact, the sort of horse best fitted for an officer's charger, is one which possesses most of the essential qualifications, as well as accomplishments, of a hunter, as his rider, when on service, knows not how soon
they may be called for. He should, however, be of airy form, with light action, and well-bred, or he will not look in character with the smart costume of his rider; but to his appearance there must not be sacrificed those essential points, substance and strength, which will enable him to struggle through difficulties, in which a weaker, though more highly-bred, animal might sink. But a trifling deviation in form in the charger, from the points insisted upon in the hunter, may be admitted. For example, the shortness of leg, that is, in the cannon or shank bone, is not exactly desirable in the charger, as his action is required to be of a grander and more showy appearance than we wish to see in the hunter. A moderate length of leg, then, is favourable to such action, and gives lightness, as well as gracefulness, to his movements.
We cannot imagine any brute animal more likely to insure the gratitude of man than the horse which has borne him in safety throughout even a single campaign; and it is not to be wondered at its having been made a subject for rebuke to Cato, that he left his charger in Spain, to avoid the expense of bringing him home; or that it should be recorded in praise of Andromache, that she fed the horses of Hector with her own hand. A case parallel with the first, we would not produce if we could; but without having recourse to history beyond the period of our own time, we may set forth a flattering resemblance to the second. The late Duchess of Wellington, during her grace's residence at Strathfield-saye, in Hampshire, seldom omitted for a day feeding, with her own hands, the favourite charger of her gallant husband.
The height of a charger should not exceed fifteen hands and a half, horses of that size being more easily set upon their haunches, and also made to turn more readily than taller ones. His colour must depend upon circumstances; but next to the silver gray, which best displays his trappings, and which, we may presume, was the colour of the celebrated Phallas (the Greeks called a gray horse φαλλος), bay, black, and chestnut, are the best.
THE TROOP-HORSE.
A change for the worse has taken place in this description of horse, in several British light dragoon regiments, the effect of which was apparent in the last European war. It originated in a wish to imitate the style and character of the hussar, without taking into consideration the fact, that that description of cavalry was intended more for out-parties and skirmishing, than for coming in contact with the body of an enemy; and that consequently the slender sort of horse on which the English light dragoon has of late been mounted, has not been found efficient, under the immense weight he carries when in marching order, or even in battle, which averages at least seventeen stone. The heavy dragoon horse is, indeed, very little more powerful now than that of the light dragoon was thirty or forty years back.
The horse best calculated for a light dragoon trooper, is something between the modern coach-horse and the hackney; upon short legs, with good bone, and with much substance in the body. His back should be short, and well ribbed up, his barrel round and large, to allow plenty of room for food, as he is often a long time without it; and hardness of constitution is a very material point in a soldier's horse. It is true they are purchased when young, many of those for the household troops, at three years old; and their good keep, upon hard food of the best quality, forces them into shape, and makes them what we see them. Most of the troop-horses are picked up at Stourbridge Fair; but the late Sir Walter Gilbert considered that the dragoon guards were never so well mounted as they were in India, when the Cape-bred hackneys were imported for their use. The Duke of Wellington was always very particular about
giving them regular exercise, and it is stated by the Druid in the Post and the Paddock, that they did 6 miles out of Brussels and back again every morning in two hours; 8 miles of it at a sharp trot, and the other 4 in a walk.
If it cannot be absolutely asserted that the first use of the horse was in harness, it is quite certain that the chariot-horse was held in high estimation in very early times, and is alluded to by poets and historians of all nations and in all languages. Homer says that Diomed, an Asiatic prince, had ten chariots, with a particular sort of horses for each; and he also makes Nestor, at the funeral games of Patroclus, harness the horses for his son with his own hands; and, by his skill in directing him in the race, he wins it. But the Grecian bard goes still further into minutiae. He even represents Menelaus, on the same occasion, using Othe, one of the horses of Agamemnon, with one of his own; and Priam is found harnessing his favourite steeds to the car, in which he returns, with the dead body of his father, from Achilles's camp, on the plains of Troy. It
would be endless to turn to other writers to show the estimation in which the chariot-horse has been held.
In its present acceptation, the term "coach-horse" includes two varieties; namely, the horse that draws the gentleman's carriage, and the one that is employed in those public conveyances called "stage-coaches." As regards the former animals, we believe a similar alteration has taken place in the form, appearance, and breeding of them, as has been seen in the English hunter within the last half century. The Flanders mares, so highly esteemed, and seen only in the carriages of families of distinction; the well buckled-up, long-tailed blacks and roans—have all disappeared, and we find in their stead the sort of horse nearly approaching to the one which was formerly considered quite well-bred enough for the chase. But the fact is, that nothing but well-bred horses have a chance to stand what is called harness-work on our roads. Those used also for "town-work," as the term is, are of a superior description, amongst which hundreds of good hunters might be selected; but such have been the high prices given for them by the dealers, at an age which would not admit of their being tried in the field, they have found their way into harness, and when once there they remain in it.
The form, however, of what may be termed a splendid town coach-horse, need not be, by any means perfect; and were a judge to examine minutely the points of vast numbers of those handsome horses seen in the carriages in London, or other large towns, he would find them very deficient in several points, essential to any purpose but harness—shoulders and hinder legs especially. But it is fortunate for breeders of horses, that it does not require true symmetry and action to form a grand coach-horse. His false points are, for the most part, concealed by his trappings; and if he be anything near the following form he will make an excellent appearance in harness. His head is not so material, as the bridle covers so much of it; but his neck should rise well out of his shoulders, as the higher he carries his head the better, provided the form of his neck admits of its being drawn inward by the bearing rein, when only moder-
ately tight, in which case he will be easily acted upon by the driving rein. The back of the coach-horse is a material point, as, without an easy slope behind the withers, his forehand will not appear grand, nor will the pad sit well upon him. His hinder quarters should be straight and blood-like; his gaskins well spread; and his tail should be set on high. His action should not be too short for town-work, but the knee should be thrown well up in the trot, to give him a grand appearance. This peculiar action, the result of strong flexor tendons, suited nearly to this purpose only, is observable in colthood, but is increased afterwards by the horse being thrown more upon his haunches by the bit; and the act of drawing is not unfavourable to it. Light work in harness, indeed, is favourable to all action, that of galloping excepted.
The North and East Ridings of Yorkshire may be called
the modern Epirus, as the greater part of the London coach-horses are bred there, and get into the dealers' hands at Howden and Northallerton fairs. The most usual cross is between the thorough-bred horse and the Cleveland-bay mare; but the appearance of too many of them incline us to believe that breeders resort, oftener than they should, to the half-bred horse, as well as to the half-bred mare. This, added to the rich grass land they are bred upon, accounts for the coarse, ill-placed shoulders, and flat, fleshy feet that so many of the London coach-horses exhibit. For road-work, in noblemen and gentlemen's carriages, horses cannot be too nearly full blood, provided they have strength equal to their work. Here, as over a country, "it is the pace that kills;" and as, in considerable velocity, the power of a horse is nearly exhausted in moving his own body, he needs every advantage we can give him.
The colour of the gentleman's coach-horse is, for the most part, bay or brown; but by far the most imposing in harness is the silver-gray, with black mane and tail. This colour was held sacred by the ancients; and Camillus is said to have given great offence to the Romans by being drawn through Rome, in his triumph, by four gray horses, no general having before ventured to do so. Gray coach-horses, however (in which Sir Henry Peyton latterly delighted), require the nicest grooming, and the best appointed harness. The piebald look conspicuous, but very few like to drive them. The skewbalds are equally unfashionable, although the late Duke of Beaufort, whose taste in these matters was irreproachable, would have nothing else in his carriage. Virgil was partial to the piebald, or party-coloured breed, and mounts young Priam upon one of them in the fifth, and Turnus in the ninth Æneid, both Thracian horses.
There are, however, a few points very necessary to be observed in the purchase of the road coach-horse. As in drawing, the force applied proceeds from the fulcrum formed by the hinder feet, well spread gaskins and thighs form a main excellence. His fore legs also should be good to make him a safe wheel-horse, nor can he throw his whole weight into his collar, unless he be sound in his feet. But alas, how many are thus deprived of their natural powers, by being worked upon unsound feet, and expected to exert themselves to the utmost.
There is no truth so easily proved, or so painfully felt by the post-master, at least in his pocket, as that it is the pace that kills. A horse at a dead pull, or at the beginning of his pull, is enabled, by the force of his muscles, to throw a certain weight into the collar. If he walk 4 miles in the hour, some part of that muscular energy must be expended in the act of walking; and, consequently, the power of drawing must be proportionally diminished. If he trot 8 miles in the hour, more animal power is expended in the trot, and less remains for the draught; but the draught continues the same, and, to enable him to accomplish his work, he must tax his energies to a degree that is cruel in itself, and that must speedily wear him out.
Let it be supposed, what every horse cannot accomplish, that he shall be able, by fair exertion and without distress, to throw, at a dead pull, a weight into his collar, or exert a force equal to 216 lb.; or, in other words, let him be able to draw a load which requires a force of 216 lb. to move. Let him next walk at the rate of 4 miles in an hour; what force will he then be able to employ? We have taken away some to assist him in walking, and we have left him only 96 lb., being not half of that which he could exert when he began his pull. He shall quicken his pace to 6 miles an hour, more energy must be exerted to carry him over this additional ground. How much has he remaining to apply to the weight behind him? 54 lb. only. We will make the 6 miles an hour 10; for it seems now to be the fashion for the fast coach, and for almost every coach, and every vehicle, to attempt this pace. How stands
the account with the poor beast? We have left him a power equal to 32 lb. only to be employed for the purpose of draught.
The load which a horse can draw is about fifteen times greater than the power exerted, supposing the road to be hard and level, and the carriage to run with little friction; and the horse which, at starting, can throw into the collar a weight or force equal to 216 lb., will draw a load of 3200. Let him, however, be urged on at the rate of 10 miles in the hour; deduct the power used in swiftness of pace from the sum total of that which he possesses, and what remains? not a sixth part, not that which is equal to a quarter of a ton, or, if it be a stage-coach, the energy exerted in draught by the four horses will not be equal to a ton.
The coach, and its passengers, and its luggage, weigh more than this, and the whole is still drawn on, and must be so. Whence comes the power? from the overstrained exertion, the injury, the torture, the destruction of the horse. That which is true of the coach-horse, is equally true of every other. Let each reader apply it to his own animal, and act as humanity and interest dictate.
It would be in vain to attempt any standard for road coach-horses. They must be picked up where they can be found, and, if possessed of action, the rest must be left to chance. A good constitution is desirable, for many die in the "seasoning," as it is called, on the road, and a young, green horse cuts a poor figure in a fast coach. Coach-masters are too much given to purchase infirm horses, by which they incur loss, for, if quite sound, it is as much as can be expected that they remain so for any moderate length of time; and we believe the average duration of horses in fast work is not more than four years, if purchased sound. Unsound horses, then, cannot be supposed to last nearly so long, independently of the cruelty of driving them. The most likely horse, however, to stand sound, and do his work well in a fast coach, is one that, with sufficient strength and a good set of limbs, has action sufficiently speedy to admit of his keeping time without going at the top of his pace. When this is the case, he runs his stage, from end to end, within himself, and is as good at the last as he was at the first; but when he cannot command the pace, he soon becomes distressed, and is weak at the end of his stage. This accounts for sundry accidents having occurred by wheel-horses being unable to hold back a loaded coach down hill, at the end of the stage, although they would have been more than equal to it at the beginning of it. In fact, many coach-horses are very good for 8 miles, but very bad for 10, so nicely are their powers measured in harness. Above all things, we recommend good legs and feet in working horses, if they are to be had; and an extra price is well laid out in procuring them. Whether they are strong in their harness, in very fast work, cannot be discovered until they are tried; but well bred ones, having substance, are most likely to prove so.
Coach-horses are subject to many accidents, and some diseases nearly peculiar to themselves. Amongst the former is the fracture of a leg, or the coffin-bone of the foot, occasioned generally, it is supposed, by treading on a stone, or any other uneven surface, when the limb is strained in draught. It, however, sometimes happens when the horse is trotting along on very fair ground, and in such cases the accident is rather difficult to account for. In very heavy draught, when the foot is much overcharged with the weight and pressure of the body, a fracture will sometimes take place at the first step the horse takes. Perhaps these accidents may be independent of what is called shape and make, but coach proprietors would do well to purchase their horses with good legs and feet, and then they are less liable to these accidents, and, with good care and good shoeing, may last many years in very quick work.
The diseases peculiar to coach-horses are the megrims and the lick. The former attacks the head, and is caused by irregular motion of the fluids within the vessels of the brain, stopping, for a time, all voluntary motion. The horse in consequence staggers and falls, if not immediately pulled up, and that does not always prevent him. This species of vertigo is generally produced by the effect of a hot sun, especially if the horse be running in the face of it, for which reason horses subject to megrims are generally worked at night. In fact, many coach-horses are good horses by night, although they cannot keep their time by day, in the summer, particularly thick-winded horses. Blind horses also do not like sun, but "as healthy as a blind horse in the winter" is a proverb.
The lick can scarcely be called a disease, but it greatly injures the condition and appearance of coach-horses. When under its influence, they are almost constantly, when not feeding, licking each other's skins, or else the rack or manger. It proceeds from a heated state of the stomach, from the excitement of high food, and almost daily profuse sweating, and is invariably removed by alternative medicines or physic.
A great mistake is made by too many coach-masters in being under instead of over horsed for their ground. Instead of keeping five horses to work a certain length of ground, and feeding them very high to perform it, it would answer them better to keep six horses on the same allowance of corn that the five horses are eating. The stock would last longer, and the money they cost be "kept together," as the term is, longer, by such means. Each horse would then rest two days out of six, when they were all fit for work, which would keep him very fresh in condition; and there would always be one spare horse left, in case either of the six wanting physic or rest. It is the almost every-day excitement that breaks down the constitution of coach-horses.
THE GIG-HORSE.
Once on a time a country parson and his wife, or a wealthy old farmer, were the only persons seen in England in two-wheeled carriages, then called Whiskies. They were useful though far from ornamental vehicles, having what is termed a "head" to protect the inmates from weather, and, with a very quiet horse, were considered as nearly equal in security to close four-wheeled carriages. In the character and appellations of these carriages, however, a wonderful alteration has taken place within the last fifty years, and even royalty itself has been seen seated in gigs, cabriolets, Stanhopes, and Tillburies; the two last taking their names from the inventors of their peculiar forms. The build of these two-wheeled carriages has reached the very summit of perfection, not only as regards their firmness but their elegance; and it is scarcely necessary to add, that the horses driven in them, as likewise their harness, have equally altered their character. From 200 to 300 guineas (and, in one instance, 700 guineas were paid) have been no uncommon prices given for gig and cabriolet horses; and for gentleman's work we might put 70 as the average of the last forty years.
The choice of a gig-horse (for we confine ourselves to that term for the present) must be regulated by local circumstances. If for London streets, his action should be rather lofty or "grand," as the term is, than fast; that is to say, he should step with his knee much elevated, which of course is unfavourable to speed. His appearance also should be of the first order of his species, not under 15 hands 2 inches in height; and if of a fancy colour, the more money will he fetch in the market. He must be well bitted, carrying his head high, and very quick in getting into his trot, or "upon his legs," as coachmen say, to en-
able his driver to make his way in crowded streets. We should also add, that this quickness in his motions should be accompanied by perfectly good temper, and freedom from all vice; in which case he is always worth 100 guineas, or more, if in the prime of life and sound.
For the country a different sort of gig-horse is required. In drawing a gig on a soft or newly gravelled road, the resistance is much the same as a continual hill; and therefore a horse with a quick, short step is best calculated for the road, as such action fatigues less than that which we have recommended for London. For all purposes, however, a horse in single harness, to be safe, should be well up before; that is to say, he should go with his fore quarters high up, and not boring on his shoulders. In this case, if he have well-placed shoulders, good legs, and sound feet, free from corns and thrushes; good natural courage to induce him to "run up to his bit," and a good mouth, there will be very little danger of his falling down in a gig; but accidents from vice must depend upon other circumstances. These accidents, however, are often the result not of real vice, or even of ill temper, but of want of knowledge in his owner of putting him properly into his harness, as well as of driving him afterwards.
Innumerable accidents to horses in gigs arise from some part of the harness pinching him, particularly about his withers or back, when he will endeavour to kick himself out of it, to rid himself of the torment. Indeed we have more than once seen a road coach-horse, in regular work, set a-kicking merely from a twisted trace rubbing edgewise against the outside of his thigh.
We consider mares objectionable in single harness, for reasons which are obvious; and few of them are to be trusted at certain periods of the year, particularly in the case of a rein getting under the tail. When driven, the precaution of the safety rein should not be omitted. We are also of opinion that numerous accidents from gigs would be prevented, if horses intended for them were to be broken in to them in bridles without winkers, as a great portion of the horses on the Continent are driven. The not knowing what they have behind them is a natural cause of alarm, and would by this means be obviated.
THE POST-HORSE.
This description of horse, although its day is quite gone by, is one of the most useful we have. He is spoken of by Xenophon, in allusion to the posts instituted by the first Cyrus, and as the most expeditious method of travelling by land (Cyropædia, lib. viii., p. 496, edit. Hutchinson); although, perhaps, he was chiefly made use of to forward public despatches. Augustus was the first to introduce post-horses, and consequently post-horses and post-chaises, amongst the Romans, disposed at convenient distances (Suet. in vit. Aug. vi., 49), but these were chiefly for the purpose of political intelligence. Thus, in a letter from Pliny to Trajan, we find him informing the emperor of his having granted a courier a warrant to make use of the public posts, as he wished him to be quickly in possession of some important facts, communicated to him by the King of Sardinia; and he subsequently (Letter exxi.) apologizes to his royal master for having ventured, on his own responsibility, to grant an order for his wife to be forwarded by post-chaises, on occasion of a domestic affliction. His letter produced a kind answer from the emperor, approving, in this peculiar instance, of the use of the warrants which he had entrusted to his care.
The character and appearance of this class of horses, as well as of all others, has undergone a marked improvement in comparatively modern times. Up to the end of the last century the post-horse was, except in a few instances, an
Cart-Horse. object of commiseration with travellers. With galled sides and sore shoulders, and scarcely a sound limb, he would not go without the lash or spur; whereas he now comes out of his stable in high condition, and runs his 10 miles stage in an hour with a carriage of the average weight, and 12, if required, with a light one. He is also seen to perform either of these tasks without being distressed, unless in immoderately hot weather, when humane persons would check his speed. Montaigne says, "There is a certain general claim of kindness and benevolence which every creature has a right to from man," a sentiment in which we heartily concur; for, although man may be considered as the delegate of heaven over inferior animals, he has no right to go to the very extremity of his authority. It is, however, much to be feared that a thoughtless indifference to the sufferings of the post-horse is too frequently to be laid with
truth to travellers in our own country, who, without any sufficient reason, urge him to a rate of speed which cannot be unattended with suffering.
The form of the good post-horse should resemble that of the hunter, which is generally ridden in the deep and close hunting counties of Great Britain; that is, with as much blood as can be got, in conjunction with good bone and strength. The riding horse of the pair must have sound legs and feet; but, if a little the worse for wear, an old hunter makes an excellent hand-horse (if he will not lie down the moment he has to take to his collar at a hill), and innkeepers generally avail themselves of the saving occasioned by putting horses of a less price in that place than the one which carries the driver. Notwithstanding this, the average purchase money of a useful pair of post-horses cannot be estimated at less than from £50 to £70.
Errors detected by experience are allowed to be equal to demonstration; but this truism is not admitted by a vast majority of English farmers, who persevere in the use of the heavy horse for agricultural purposes, for which, solely, he is by no means fitted, from the slowness of his step (independently of his weight), unless very highly fed. As long, however, as the ponderous vehicles made use of in London and elsewhere for the transmission of heavy goods are persevered in, this equally ponderous animal, which sometimes weighs a ton, may be necessary; but it is certain that lighter horses in lighter vehicles would do the business better, that is, more speedily and at less cost. Notwithstanding the objections to him, the heavy cart-horse pays well for rearing; for, being always saleable at two years old, a certain profit is insured, as for the first year the expense of keeping him is trifling. If on a large scale, and promising to be fit for the London market, or the best-conducted road waggons, he commands a price that leaves a handsome surplus to the breeder.
The chief desiderata in the cart-horse are substance and action. If possessed of the latter, his shoulders and fore-
quarters can scarcely be too coarse and heavy; for drawing being an effort of the animal to preserve himself from the tendency which his weight gives him to the centre of gravity when he inclines forward, so the more weighty he is before and the nearer he approximates this centre, the more advantageously will he apply his powers. Notwithstanding this, we are not advocates of heavy horses for farmers' work, much less on the road. The lighter horse gets over in eight hours what would take the heavy one ten; and the great improvement in the present mode of culture, and the implements used for agricultural purposes, do not require more weight or strength than what the Suffolk, Clydesdale, Cleveland-bay, and other lighter breeds, are masters of. Besides, there are periods of the year when despatch of business is of great moment to the farmer, which he cannot command in those mountains of horse-flesh which we see labouring in most of the finest districts in England, tiring themselves by their own weight.
Travellers on the Continent, occupying land in England, should carry in their eye the form and action of the horses which draw the public carriages, particularly those bred in Picardy, in France. The prevailing colour is iron roan, and their nature appears to sympathize with that colour; for,
Irish
Horse.
speaking figuratively, they are as hard as iron itself. It is not unusual to find four or five of them drawing those cumbrous diligences, weighing perhaps 6 or 7 tons, a 20-mile stage at the rate of 6 miles an hour, preserving up their condition to the highest pitch; and this with hay and corn very inferior in quality to that grown in England. To keep up the condition of the English cart-horse, requires him to consume nearly as much as his labour is worth; and unless he lives well he is only half alive, which his sluggish action denotes. In fact, his chief fault lies in his having too great a body and too little spirit, consequently he exhausts himself in the mere act of carrying that body. The nimbleness of the smaller kinds of cart-horses to which we have alluded, is owing to their moderate size; and their immense powers in lifting weight (with the Suffolk Punch, and Clydesdale breeds, in particular) to the same cause, combined with the low position of the shoulder, which occasions weight to be acted upon in a just and horizontal direction. The Welsh cart-horses, especially those in use in the counties of Denbigh, Merioneth, and Montgomery, are eminently adapted to all agricultural purposes, combining much strength with a great share of activity; and the general criteria of a wide breast, with low shoulders, good carcase, and small head, indicate their being good workers, with hardihood of constitution. Their height is about 15 hands 2 inches; and their colour black or brown.
THE IRISH HORSE.
The Irish hackney may be reckoned amongst the indigene of his country, a sui generis animal, not mixed as the English hackney is, with the black cart-horse, originally and still brought over by dealers from Flanders. He is remarkable for the general soundness of his feet, which are stronger in the heels than those of English horses, and he stands his work well, if not too much abused in his youth. Almost all Irish horses coming under this description have been broken into the plough and the car, so they, for the most part, go in harness; but the worst fault they have is not having been properly broken in, and bitten, which is the cause of many of them being restive.
The Irish hunter is a very different animal from what he was half a century back. He was always celebrated for leaping, but until lately the want of breeding rendered him nearly useless as a hunter, in the countries which require speed, as well as the accomplishment of leaping. At the present time great numbers of excellent well-bred Irish hunters are annually imported into England, and being found to answer well, fetch good prices. This is the result of horse-breeders in Ireland seeing the necessity of putting their hunting mares to thorough-bred stallions, and not, as before, to the slow, great-jumping hunter, no matter how low his breed. The improved cross, being again put to the thorough-bred stallion, of course has produced a still better kind of animal, and thus are Irish hunters "progressing" towards perfection.
The method of leaping of the native Irish horse is peculiarly suited to some of our English counties, Cheshire and Lancashire, for example, and likewise to those inclosed with walls both in England and Scotland. To use an expressive Irish phrase, "they have always a leg to spare," implying that they have a ready use of their hinder legs; which is the fact, in tipping or touching walls or banks, with one or both, which gives them a fresh fulcrum, from which they can extend their leap, in case of their finding an unforeseen difficulty or obstacle on the landing side. In the wall counties of Ireland, indeed, the horses are taught to alight on their hinder legs upon the summit of the wall, after the manner of the dog when he leaps a gate, which, if the wall be broad and firm, adds to the facility of the ex-
ertion, as also to the safety of the rider. Irish hunters are generally good brook jumpers, being educated, indeed bred, amongst drains; but field gates, or stiles, being of rare occurrence in the pastoral districts of Ireland, they are not to be relied upon as timber leapers, until they have been initiated to that description of fence.
Persons who have had experience in Irish hunters have found them very shy of having a whip, with a thong to it, made use of by the rider, either for the purpose of smacking it, or to strike an unruly bound. This, we fear, proceeds from unnecessary severity in the exercise of the whip in breaking, but which would be obviated if breeders were aware of the inconvenience it occasions to servants, who are called upon to ride Irish horses with hounds in the capacity of huntsmen or whippers-in. We have seen a few of these horses nearly useless from this cause, as servants' horses; although well suited, in every other respect, to this peculiar purpose from their style of fencing and hardiness.
The Irish race-horse was formerly far behind the English; but he has latterly—as Harkaway, Foig-a-Ballagh, The Baron, Irish Birdcatcher, Russborough, and Knight of St George, have proved—shown himself a match for them both in the stud and on the Turf. For their first good runners the Irish were principally indebted to Lords Sligo and Rossmore, and to the late Mr Bowes Daly, who was esteemed the best judge of breeding racers that Ireland ever could boast of. It must, however, be admitted that horses bred and trained in one country, and running in another, meet their rivals under disadvantageous circumstances, in consequence of the loss of condition consequent on a sea voyage.
THE SCOTCH HORSE.
Like all cold countries, Scotland is unfavourable to breeding the race-horse in his best form; and the only prospect of rearing him to anything approaching perfection is to shelter him with unusual care from the weather, when either cold or wet, and to force him with the highest keep. Scottish-bred hunters, however, are esteemed in the hunting world as a stout, hardy race; and they, like the Irish, are now well enough bred to live with any hounds at the speedy rate at which those animals run, according to the fashion of the present day. Of the native Highland pony it is unnecessary to say much, its merits being so well known; and the Scotch cart-horses are decidedly the best in Great Britain. The peculiar variety known as Clydesdale horses stand first in repute. Of the origin of this race various accounts have been given, but none of them so clear or so well authenticated as to merit much notice. They acquired their appellation, not because they are peculiar to Clydesdale, as the same description of horses are bred in the other western counties of Scotland, and over all that tract which lies between the Clyde and the Forth, but because the principal markets at which they are sold—namely, Lanark, Carnwath, Rutherglen, and Glasgow—are situated in that district, where they are also preserved in a state of greater purity than in most other parts. They are rather larger than the Suffolk-punch, and the neck is somewhat longer; their colour is black, brown, or gray; all the essential points for heavy draught are very conspicuously developed; and they are extremely docile withal, and excellent at what is called a dead pull. Mr Charles Philips, of Cracroft, Cumberland, is the best English breeder of them; and some of his two-year-olds, according to The Droid, have been sold in Canada at 4 shillings and 8 pence per pound! Some magnificent specimens of this breed are to be seen in the streets of Glasgow, in the service of merchants and carriers. We have reason to believe that, if tried by a dynamometer, the Clydesdale horse would exceed
Treatment of Horses. any other of his inches and weight in his powers of draught; and his quick step adds much to his value.
Humanity and mercy are esteemed the choicest characteristics of man; and there is hardly a greater instance of ill-nature, or a more certain token of a cruel disposition, than the abuse of dumb animals, especially of those who
contribute to our convenience and pleasure. Judge Hale Treatment of Horses. beautifully expresses himself on this subject in his Contemplations. "There is a degree of justice," says he, "due from man to the creatures, as from man to man; and an excessive use of the creatures' labour is an injustice for which he must account. I have therefore always esteemed it a part of my duty to be merciful to my beasts." We know of no remedy for this; but it is pleasing to reflect that in all classes of society so noble, generous, and useful an animal as the horse, is now freed from many evils to which
The diagram shows a side view of a horse with numbered labels from 1 to 26. The labels are as follows:
- 1. L. L. Muzzle, parts about the mouth.
- 2. Gullet.
- 3. Windpipe.
- 4. Crest.
- 5. Withers.
- 6. Chest, or carcase.
- 7. Girth.
- 8. Back.
- 9. Loins.
- 10. Hip, or ilium.
- 11. Croup.
- 12. Haunch, or quarters.
- 13. Thigh.
- 14. Hoof.
- 15. Shank, or cannon.
- 16. Fetlock.
- 17. Pastern.
- 18. Shoulder-bone, or scapula.
- 19. Elbow.
- 20. Fore-thigh, or fore-arm.
- 21. Knee.
- 22. Coronet.
- 23. Point of the back.
- 24. Ham-string.
he was formerly subjected. In fact, if the Society for the Suppression of Cruelty to Animals hear of a case, they will send their agent any distance to prosecute it. The short-docking of the cart-horse, the effect of prejudice and ignorance, it being supposed to add strength to his back, is very generally discontinued, and he is allowed the use of a full tail, the only natural defence against the torment of flies in the summer. Those barbarous operations, nicking the tail, and cropping the ears of pleasure horses, are very seldom had recourse to; neither is firing the limbs nearly so frequent a remedy as it was, veterinary science having substituted other equally efficacious, but less painful means. And, though last, not least, the improved condition, and the effect of better stable management, on all horses employed in fast work, has very considerably lessened their sufferings. On this subject we offer the following remarks:—
The improvement in training the race-horse has been the result of two distinct causes, each equally likely to produce the desired effect. First, practical experience, an excellent schoolmaster in such matters; and, secondly, both breeders and trainers of this animal now look into books, not only reading them, but reflecting upon what they read. As we have already observed, trainers dislike green meat, and a racing-colt may now be said to be in training, if not from the day on which he is foaled, from that on which he is weaned; for his condition, at least the foundation of it, is from that period in progress. Again, the early period of his going into work, compared with what it formerly was, but now become so general, has not been without its effect.
It has called forth additional exercise of the trainer's professional skill; for it may easily be imagined that bringing very young horses to the post, in the perfect state of condition and full development of muscular power in which we now-a-days see them at every race-meeting in our island, is a very difficult task, and that it is a still more difficult one to preserve them in that state, even for a few days. On the whole, the training system of the present day is not nearly so severe as it was; and railways have done much towards keeping horses in condition, by allowing them to stay at their own stables and training-ground till within a few hours of the race, instead of losing condition by a long walk on the road, and even to say nothing of a fresh stable and fresh water every night. Many of the great favourites have now their own food and water brought to a race-meeting with them for fear of risks, as change of water especially is most detrimental to a horse in form. Both constitution and temper being to be consulted, the very refinement of the art is called for; in fact, the trainer must act upon principle, and very cautiously too, in his efforts to forestal nature. Inasmuch, however, as muscular action produces muscular strength, the racer of the present day, reared as he is reared, and consequently in a more condensed form, does not, with few exceptions, require the very severe work which it was formerly necessary to give him to increase his natural powers, as well as to rid him of the bulk of flesh and humours he acquired in his colthood under the old system of rearing him. A sight of our two-year-olds at the starting-post is the best demonstration of what is here stated. They exhibit a development of muscle in their forced and early maturity almost equal to that of the adult horse, and carry 8 st. 7 lb. and even upwards, at a racing pace; a weight
Treatment unheard of upon so young an animal in former times. How far, however, this forced maturity and its consequences—namely, severe work, and the excitement of high keep, at so tender an age—are favourable to him or to his produce in after life is another question; but the use of a system should never be estimated by the abuse of it. If our race-horses are not, and we believe they are not, so stout in their running as formerly—that is to say, twenty years back—the cause may fairly be traced to the great value of produce stakes and others, which bring them to the post at so early an age; so much so, that, in the language of the turf, a four-year-old colt of the present day is called "the old horse."
But a still more material alteration for the better has taken place during the last thirty years in the stable management and condition of the British hunter, arising principally from a different treatment of him in the non-hunting months. It had, from time immemorial, been the usual remark of the sportsman, on his hunters being turned out of their stable in the spring, for the supposed necessary advantage of the "summer's run at grass," that it was to be lamented that the hunting season was concluded, as the condition of his stud was so perfect. The fact was that until then, or nearly till then, they had not been in condition at all; and, how strange soever it may appear to any one reflecting upon this subject, by the act of turning them to grass for this "summer's run," he was about to undo all that his groom and himself had been doing during the nine preceding months—namely, to destroy the perfect state of condition which he was at that time lamenting over. Still more strange, however, is the fact, that although the evils of this out-of-door system for three months in the year to an animal who lived the other nine in warm stables and well clothed, were hinted at by Mr Beckford in his celebrated Letters upon Hunting, and abandoned by a few of our first-rate sportsmen of, and subsequent to, his day, and particularly about the commencement of the present century, by the example of the Earl of Sefton, when he was owner of the Quorndon hounds in Leicestershire, still the ruinous system of the three, and generally four months' run at grass (viz., from 1st of May to the 12th or 20th of August) continued to be practised until these evils were exposed in all their appalling deformity, and the advantages of an opposite system made manifest in a series of letters in the Old Sporting Magazine, under the signature of "Nimrod," which have since been published in a separate form, and very widely circulated. We may also add that the effect of this exposure has been nearly a general abandonment of the grazing system in the studs of all men who mean to ride near hounds.
Previously to our enumerating the real advantages of the modern system of "summering the hunter," we will state the imaginary ones of the old one, and which, as may be supposed, are still held to be such by those who reluctantly acquiesce in any kind of reform. First, the purging by spring grass is insisted upon. Secondly, a relaxation of the muscles, and what is called a letting down of the whole system to its natural state. Thirdly, the benefit the feet receive from the dews of the evening, and coming in contact with the cool earth. Fourthly, the saving of expenses. Fifthly, a kind feeling towards the animal, who, they say, is entitled to his liberty for a certain period of the year, also to the free enjoyment of his natural state. And, lastly, the absolute necessity of rest to the limbs, after the labours of
the preceding season. We will now make our own comment on each of these presumed facts. Treatment of Horses.
And, first, we admit there is a laxative, and therefore a cooling, property in early spring grass, but as a purgative it is insufficient, which is admitted by the fact of its having been generally considered necessary to give two doses of physic to hunters previously to their being turned abroad for the summer (thus administering the antidote, as it were, before the poison), and to physic them immediately when taken up. Here, then, is at once an answer to the first objection to the improved system of in-door treatment in the summer; even supposing that spring grass could not be given to a horse in a loose box, whereas it is evident that it can.
Secondly, the entire letting down of the system, by a sudden change of food from that which is highly invigorating to that which is only succulent and relaxing, is neither called for, nor can it be wholesome. It is never had recourse to with the race-horse during his period of inactivity, and why should it be with the hunter? We would ask the owner of a horse so treated, how he thinks it would agree with his own constitution and his digestion, to be suddenly taken from beef and port-wine to a purely vegetable diet; and the analogy holds good.1
Thirdly, a great mistake has prevailed on this point, the preservation of the feet. A certain degree of moisture is beneficial to the foot of the horse, a continued exposure to wet most injurious to it, as the certain cause of thrushes, and in time total destruction of the frogs. Thus, history informs us that the horses in Hannibal's army were rendered unserviceable by travelling many days in succession in very wet ground. But we have better authority here than that of Livy, because it applies to horses which wore shoes, whereas Hannibal's wore none. Mr Goodwin senior, late veterinary surgeon to his Majesty George IV., in his work on the Diseases of the Feet (p. 209, 1st edit.), has the following passage, in allusion to the evils of having the feet of horses saturated, as they must be during a summer, with wet at one time, and then suddenly exposed to a hot sun and a drying wind at another. "I have invariably observed," says Mr Goodwin, "where horses are turned out to grass during the dry and hot summer months, that on bringing them up to be put into stable condition, their feet are in a much worse state than they were when they went out, dried up, and so hard and brittle, that, on the application of a tool to bring them into a form to receive a shoe, the horn breaks like a piece of glass, and all the naturally tough and elastic property is lost, so that it requires some months to remove the bad effects. If it is necessary that a horse should be put out of work during the hot and dry weather, I prefer a large box or shed, and soiling with green food; by which means two objects are gained, viz., all the injurious effects of a drying wind or a meridian sun on the hoof are avoided, which create such an excessive evaporation of the natural moisture absorbed into the horn from within, that it not only becomes dry, hard, and brittle, but the whole horny box tightens on the sensible parts, and frequently produces great mischief. But in a loose place, moisture may be applied in any desirable way." In addition to the above, Mr Goodwin says, "Horses at grass are much inclined to thrushes;" which renders it unnecessary for us to say more on this subject at present, although we shall by-and-by offer the result of our own experience in the treatment of horses' feet in the summer.
1 In No. 59, vol. v., p. 645, of the Veterinarian, we find the Editor coinciding with Nimrod on this point, in his second review of his Letters on Condition. "These pithy and valuable extracts," says he, "at the same time that they serve to expose our author's views in regard to summering the hunter, demonstrate a sagacity and experience on the subject, no less worthy of the admiration of the professional man, than of the sportsman himself. The leading consideration in summering the hunter is to maintain his condition, or rather, we should say, to guard against his losing that which we know, both by education as medical men, and experience as sportsmen, once lost, will require much time and pains to be re-acquired. Change of food is necessarily productive, in the animal constitution, of alteration of structure; though parts cannot be said to change their nature under their influence, yet they do become greatly altered both in texture and in tone."
Fourthly, a saving in expense. This is an objection too trifling to be admitted in opposition to any real advantages. It was calculated by Nimrod1 (allowing only 4s. per week to have been the charge for each horse, supposing him to have been summered at grass), that the extra expense of his six hunters summered after his system, which we shall further explain, amounted to only L.13, 18s. The mere chance in favour of exemption from accidents to which horses abroad are liable, is worth more than this inconsiderable sum to the man who keeps six hunters in his stable; but twice its amount would be realized in the sale of any of the six, if offered at the hammer in November, beyond the sum he would have produced had he been summered solely in the fields.
Fifthly, we would go any length in advocating the extreme of kind treatment to so noble an animal as the horse; but experience has taught us, that neither the open field, nor the shade, is a bed of roses, in the summer months, to the well-bred, and naturally thin-skinned hunter; for the æstrum, or blood-sucker, pursues him in each; and the desperate attempts he often makes to avoid them, shows the horror he has of their attacks. But, unluckily for the advocates of this system, one of the greatest evils of the out-of-door system here stares us in the face. If the horse cannot get away from this host of tormentors, his only remedy against them is, galloping from one end of his pasture to the other, or else stamping with his feet against the hard ground, and often against the roots of trees, to scare them from one part of his body, only to settle upon another. The injury to both feet and legs from a daily succession of these operations, may be left to the imagination of the reader; but against the charge of cruelty, we quote the following remark from Nimrod's Letters (p. 268, first edition): "In the very hot weather" (he is speaking of the summer of 1825, which was remarkable for the intenseness of its heat), "I made a few observations, which are not irrelevant to my present purpose, particularly as to the charge of cruelty in keeping hunters in the house in the summer. On the 29th of July, one of the hottest days, the thermometer was one degree higher, at 2 o'clock at noon, in my two four-stall stables, in each of which three horses had stood for sixteen days and nights, than it was in the entrance-hall of my house, which is 23 feet high, and contains three large windows and six doors, and the aspect due east. Now, will any one tell me, that the most tender animal could be injured by breathing such an atmosphere as this? But all is not yet told. I removed the thermometer on the same day, and at the same hour, into the shade, and there it was four degrees higher than in my two four-stall stables. Here, then, the objection to horses standing 'sweating in the stables in the summer time,' returns to its real insignificance."
Lastly, upon the subject of rest, and the means of procuring the advantages of it to the hunter by a summer's run in the fields, we cannot do better than quote from the same author. "When discussing the subject," says he (p. 262), "of summering hunters, with a friend who is an advocate for the grazing system, he made use of the following expression: 'I dare say it may be all very well to keep them in the house in the summer, but then they have not the benefit of the rest which they get when at grass.' I could not help smiling at this strange perversion of facts; and ventured to ask him, Whether, if he were examined in natural philoso-
phy, and asked, what is rest, he would answer, motion? Treatment of Horses. and that would not be a whit less absurd. If rest be desirable, as we know it is, for a hunter's legs, after the labours of a winter, surely he must obtain it more effectually in a small confined place, than when suffered to run over a large tract of land, and to stamp the ground with his feet for so many hours each day." Neither does the labour to the legs end here. All persons who have ridden horses whose growth has been forced in their bodies, as that of most hunters has been, must have perceived that, when letting them drink in shallow water, their fore legs totter under them, in the attempt to reach the water with their mouth. Such is the case with the hunter, at least with the properly formed one, when in the act of grazing (for the horse prefers a short bite); and the tremour in his legs shows the stress that is laid upon them, to enable him to reach his food. In fact, many horses (and we could name some well-known hunters) cannot reach the ground at all with their mouths, unless it be by the painful position of placing one fore foot close to their mouth, and the other even with the hinder legs; and consequently their owners have not been able to turn them out, had they been inclined to do so.
It is now our turn to be heard on this important subject to all owners of hunters; and we proceed to state, that the principal objection to summering a horse abroad, consists in the danger we expose him to by the violent change from a stable at the temperature of 63° (the common one of hunting stables), and the addition of warm clothing, to a bed upon the cold ground on a wet night; or, which often happens in the month of May, to the influence of sharp frost; all this, also, when the animal has scarcely any coat on his back to provide against the effects of bad weather; and with a skin highly porous, from long continued friction in the stable. As well might we expect to find animals and plants that can sustain the heat of the torrid, and the cold of the frigid zone, as horses to bear those extremes with impunity! On the contrary, it is the confirmed opinion of most veterinary surgeons, that more hunters have been ruined by becoming roarers, broken-winded, or blind, from this cause, than from any other to which they are subjected; and they are backed in their opinion by reason. For it is not necessary that the newly-turned-out hunter should be exposed to either a wet or a frosty night, to produce disordered functions; the common exhalations from the ground in the evening, are sufficient to produce them, by a sudden constriction of the pores, opened as they have been by the effect of a hot sun during the day. "Heat and cold, moisture and dryness," says Mr Percival, veterinary surgeon to the First Life Guards, and author of the Anatomy of the Horse, in his last work on the Horse (p. 64), when treating on the theory of inflammation, "all in their turn become excitants of inflammation; their mischievous agency residing more in the vicissitudes from one state to its opposite, than in any obnoxiousness in our climate, from their excess or continuance. They may operate either directly as excitants, or indirectly, simply as predisposing causes." Few veterinarians, indeed, as Mr Percival expresses himself, now-a-days feel inclined to deny the ungenerality of cold and wet to the constitutions of horses, or to maintain that they do not very often, in such situations, contract the foundations for disease, which at some future time is apt to break out and prove fatal to them.
| 1 Two tons five hundred-weights of hay, at L.4 per ton..... | L.9 | 0 | 0 |
| Seventy-one bushels of oats, at 4s. 6d. per bushel..... | 14 | 4 | 0 |
| Beans..... | 1 | 10 | 0 |
| L.24 | 14 | 0 | |
| Six horses at grass nine weeks, at 4s. per week..... | 10 | 16 | 0 |
| L.13 | 18 | 0 |
Nor are the remarks of this scientific practitioner and most perspicuous writer, less to our purpose, when speaking of the horse that is turned out of his stable in the winter. "Take a horse," says he, in his chapter on 'Hide-bound' (p. 296), "fat and sleek in condition, out of a warm stable, where he has been well clothed and fed, turn him, during the cold and wet of winter into a straw-yard, and go and look at him three months afterwards, and you will hardly recognise your own horse. You will find him with a long, shaggy, staring coat; a belly double the size it was when in condition; and a skin sticking close and fast to his ribs, which may now be readily counted with the hand, if not with the eye." But here the analogy between the horse turned out to grass in the summer, and the horse sent to a straw-yard in the winter ceases. The latter loses flesh, and becomes hide-bound, both of which will find a remedy in a return to more generous food in the stable, with the assistance of alternative medicine; and he will speedily resume his condition. But it will not be so with the grass-fed hunter. He has accumulated a load of soft, unhealthy flesh, which must be got rid of at the expense of his legs and feet; or, in the language of grooms, "it must be exchanged for better flesh, the produce of hay and corn." By feeding ad libitum, however, he has so plethorized his system, and trespassed upon his digestive organs, that this is become not merely a work of labour and time, but one of no small risk to the general soundness of his constitution. Nor is even this the extent of the mischief. Under the most favourable circumstances, it is not in the power of a groom, how good soever he may be, to bring the grass-fed hunter into the field, fit to be ridden, with hounds, until the hunting season is half expired. For proof of this assertion, we need only go to the race-horse, which cannot be made fit to run under at least four months' preparation, although he has not been at grass since he was six months old. Nature will not be put out of her course by violence; and horses can only be got into good condition by degrees, by long-continued slow work at first, increasing in pace as their condition increases; and it has been the attempt to get the grass-fed hunter into something approaching to condition, by hurrying him in his work, under a load of flesh, and with his muscles in a relaxed state, that has ruined thousands of good horses, by the injury done to their legs especially; and will ruin thousands more, if persevered in. The change of food, again, has been the cause of more broken-winded horses than anything else that can be named. "It must dispose," says Mr Percival, "from its being the chief cause of plethora, to general diathesis of the system; and so far it contributes to the production of pneumonia, or any other inflammatory affection." To this we may add blindness, the natural consequence of the dependent posture of the head when feeding, in an animal in the plethoric state that a previously highly-fed hunter must fall into, after being some weeks at grass; and likewise of constant irritation from flies and sun. Neither should the following remark of Mr Percival be forgotten by gentlemen who turn out their hunters during a wet summer. "Cold," says he, "abstractedly from wet, even although it be alternated with heat, is not found to be near so prejudicial as when moisture is present too; hence we are in the habit of viewing frosty weather as a season of health among horses; and hence it is that the spring and autumnal months are the most unhealthy, the weather being then moist and variable, and the wind generally in a cold quarter." Again, "Two undomesticated horses," says he, "out of three, under five years old, that are taken from cold situations, and kept in warm stables, will receive catarrh. But even domesticated horses that are advanced in years, and that have been accustomed to such changes, do not always escape, unless some precautionary measures be taken; for hunters taken up from grass in August, un-
less due attention be paid to the temperature of the stable, are often the subjects of catarrhal attacks."
Perhaps the summer of 1835 may be produced in proof of the danger of subjecting stabled horses to atmospheric changes. In the first week of June, 78, 80, 82, and 84 degrees of heat were marked by the thermometer. On the 13th, the maximum of heat was 15 degrees less than that of the preceding day; and on the 23d, the thermometer fell to 47 degrees, succeeded by four days' rain, with wind veering to S.E., back to W., then to N. and N.E., at times furiously high.
We must be allowed two more remarks on the evils of the out-of-door system. Amongst the physical changes which the body is capable of receiving, none is so visibly effected as in the diminished or increased size of the belly; and the latter alternation of form is speedily effected by a horse eating grass, and nothing but grass. When a man goes into training for a match against time, or a prize-fight, the first act of his trainer is, to reduce the size of his belly; for, until that is done, his respiration is not free enough to enable him to make such bodily exertions as are essential to augment his natural vigour, and put him into the best possible condition; and this exactly applies to the grass-fed hunter taken up in August. He has exchanged an active untiring frame for a bloated and breathless carcass; and nothing can be done with him until, by purging and severe work, when he is not in a fit state to endure it with impunity, the nature of his frame is altered from weakness to vigorous health. But this must be the work of time, for, although Nature will admit of improvement, she will not allow herself to be hurried by the unreasonable innovations of man.
Our next remarks relate to bodily infirmities and local diseases, to which the horse, by the severity of his labours, is always more or less subject. Several of these, such as splints, spavins, curbs, and ring-bones, are easily checked, if discovered in their incipient state; but when, by being undiscovered for only a short time, a certain progress is made in them, the cure is far from certain, at all events, more difficult. Now, under the old system of the summer's run abroad, this was most frequently the case. Horses, when taken up, were found to have thrown out those excrescences unperceived, which, as soon as they began to work, caused lameness and disappointment; whereas, under the improved system of summering the hunter, they could not have escaped the constant inspection of the groom, and an immediate check would have been given to them. The short-cough, vulgarly and stupidly called a "grass-cough," also too often swelled the catalogue of disasters; and, in six cases out of ten, ended in broken wind or roaring. But it may not here be amiss to address ourselves to owners of hunters, who may adopt either one system or the other of treating them in the summer months; we mean, as regards their legs, the treatment of which now forms a conspicuous feature in the science of the stable, particularly the racing stable. Many valuable animals are ruined in consequence of their owners and their grooms not knowing, perhaps not wishing to know, when their legs are going amiss, and consequently stopping them in their work, before the evil gets a-head. It is irksome, no doubt, to give up the use of a hunter, especially if a favourite one, and in blooming condition; but it is only by such prudent conduct that we can expect a lengthened enjoyment of his services. It is a lamentable fact that, generally speaking, good-constituted horses would wear out two sets of legs and feet, which shows the urgent necessity of taking care of them.
We now take our leave of the old, and, we may add, ruinous system of treating hunters in the summer, and proceed to state how, in our opinion (the result of much experience), they ought to be treated in the non-hunting months; as also to offer a few directions for the manage-
Treatment of Horses. Treatment of them when in work. To begin, we are far from aversive to resting the hunter in the summer, although we cannot shut our eyes to the fact of horses working hard for a great many years in succession, without experiencing what is here meant by "rest" (namely, not having a saddle on their backs for three or four months), and remaining sound and healthy to the end of a long life. Our great object is, to give the hunter fair play, by preserving, instead of destroying, his condition at the same time that we rest him; and in this we think, that, by preventing exhaustion in his work when he returns to it, we offer him much more than an equivalent for the fancied enjoyment of his "snuffing the air in his native liberty," and "making his bed on the cool ground," so stoutly insisted upon by many of the old school, who will not march with the times, and who cannot divest themselves of prejudices, how dear soever they may cost them.
The period of "turning up," not "out," hunters towards the close of the season should depend on circumstances. Those whose legs may be doubtful, should be the first thrown out of work; and after them old ones, who, how well soever they may go over a country when it is soft, are in danger of breaking down when it becomes hard, as it always does in March, particularly in ploughed countries.
The first act of a groom, when his horses have done their work for the season, is to give them two doses of mild physic, which, by their effect on their legs, will greatly assist him in discovering the amount, if any, of the injury that may have been done to them. Should anything serious exhibit itself, we recommend him (unless he be a first-rate professor of his art) to avail himself of the advice of a veterinary surgeon, as to the steps proper to be taken; and the sooner those steps are taken, the better will it be for his horses. The barbarous, the senseless, practice of blistering, generally the two fore legs, and often the hinder ones also, previously to turning out, under the old system, is now, we are glad to say, abandoned, not only on account of its inutility, but, by the spread of veterinary science, sportsmen have found out that the application of blisters to healthy legs is injurious. The merely irritating the surface of the skin cannot be productive of advantage; on the contrary, it often rouses the sleeping lion, which it is afterwards difficult to pacify. As counter-irritants of internal inflammation, or as counter-irritants, as they are called, blisters are highly useful; likewise to all bony excrescences, such as splints, spavins, or ring-bones, when in an incipient state; but, in order to render them efficacious, they should be repeated till healthy pus is obtained. If judiciously applied in strains, they are also not unserviceable, as they help to unload the vessels near the affected part. Supposing, then, no serious mischief has been done to the legs of a hunter during the season, we thus proceed in our course of treatment of him:—
Prior to stripping him of his clothes, he should go through his second dose of physic, and be treated exactly as if he were in work for at least a fortnight afterwards, with the exception of his having only walking exercise, a diminished allowance of corn, and the wisp, without the brush, applied to his body. We now arrive at a point on which there is some difference of opinion, at all events, one which must be left to the option of the owner; namely, whether, as is the practice in the stables of some of our first-rate sportsmen, the hunter is to be kept in gentle work throughout the summer, or to be thrown entirely aside for a certain number of weeks, varying from nine to twelve? We will, however, state the best method of proceeding under each of these systems.
The horse kept in work (we should rather have said exercise) during the summer, should be exercised very early in the morning on soft, but not wet ground (a low meadow, or rather a marshy common, for example), that his feet may
have the advantage of moisture, and also that he may not be tormented by flies, or exposed to a hot sun. Two hours will be sufficient, the pace to be varied alternately from the walk to the jog-trot. It is desirable that a horse thus treated should not be tied up in a stall, but have the enjoyment of a large loose-house. Of course, attention should be paid to his feet, removing his shoes every third or fourth week; and they should be stopped with wet tow every second night. To those who object to this in-door treatment of the hunter on the score of danger to his feet, we can only say, from our own experience, that their fears are groundless; and we also refer them to the first cavalry barrack they pass by, or even to the stables of our innkeepers on the road, in which they will find feet in the highest state of preservation, that have been subject to in-door treatment for many years. We prefer damp tow to any other sort of stopping for horses' feet, because, exclusive of the moisture, it affords a uniform pressure to the frog and outer sole of the foot, which is favourable to their healthy state. Indeed, to some of the finely-formed, open feet which we see on first-rate hunters, the soles of which are apt to be thin, this pressure is most advantageous in preventing a disposition in them to become flat or convex, instead of moderately concave; and for this purpose was the "horse-pad," or "elastic stopping," invented by Mr Cherry, veterinary surgeon of London, which may be preferable to the tow, but not always at hand. When the latter is used, it should be forced into the foot with all the strength of a man's fingers or thumb.
The food of hunters thus summered should be regulated by circumstances. Good flesh, we know, is strength; but that which is generated in comparative idleness only contributes to weakness. Our object, then, should be to prevent a horse, treated in the manner we now allude to, from throwing up much flesh, and we must therefore feed accordingly, and also study constitution. At all events, three small feeds of oats (we do not feel ourselves justified in recommending beans—although we know some sportsmen give them—except in very peculiar cases, such as extreme delicacy of constitution, a disposition to scour, or throw off food) per day are sufficient for any horse, with the addition of a large, sloppy, bran mash twice a-week. As to green food, we recommend that with caution. We approve of its being given occasionally for three or four days in succession, merely as soiling, to attenuate the blood, not to produce flesh; and this repeated now and then at intervals, whilst the green meat (be it what it may) is young, but by no means afterwards. Many grooms mix hay with green food, which, after the first two or three times of giving it, we think a judicious plan. But, be it observed, for reasons we have already given, we object to a hunter acquiring a load of flesh in the summer, the produce of succulent food. A moderate use of alternatives is beneficial throughout the summer to horses which live well, but do not work, as, by their mild and gradual impression, a healthy action of the bowels is kept up, as well as insensible perspiration increased.
The horse not kept in work should be thus treated in the summer: He should run loose in the bay of a barn, or any large covered place where he gets exercise, and breathes fresh air, without exposure to the sun. His physic, food, &c., should be as before directed; but as he is now unshod, and consequently cannot have his hoofs filled with anything which can impart moisture to them, he should be made to stand two hours every day, under cover, in wetted clay. Unless after firing, or severe blistering, when the sedative powers of cold air are efficacious in checking local inflammation, we prefer the hunter being housed throughout the night, to his lying out even in a paddock, as he is less liable to disease and accidents; but we admit that the danger of exposure to night air is greatly diminished by his
Treatment of Horses. having been kept cool throughout the day, by which he is less susceptible of atmospheric influence, or the alternation from warmth to cold, than if his arterial system had been acted upon by exposure to a mid-day sun. The sticklers, then, for the "dews of heaven," and the "bed upon the cool earth," may here indulge their predilections; but, for our own part, we give the preference to the house at night with horses free from disease.
The state of the horses, summered as we have now described, will, in great measure resemble each other, although, as may be supposed, the one which has been kept on in his exercise will be most forward in condition. Neither of them, however, will have lost much of their proper form; but a distinction must be made in our proceedings with them, when preparing them for the forthcoming season. "Suffer a horse to be idle," says Mr Percival (Hippopathology, p. 14), "to do little or no work, and feed him well during the time, and the redundant nourishment floating in his blood will be laid up in the form of fat; put the same animal to work, and that blood, which otherwise would have been turned into fat, will now be transformed into materials of strength." Here, then, it is evident that the horse which has been kept in exercise will require somewhat of a different preparation to the one which has remained unshod, and consequently idle. The first will require very little alteration in his proceedings until nearly the approach of the hunting season, as he will soon be prepared for quick work; but it will be by long-continued slow work, increasing in pace as his condition increases, that the second will be quite himself again, from the relaxed state of his muscles, somewhat redundant flesh, as well as his distended belly. In either case, however, there will be no occasion for all that physicking, galloping, and sweating, to get rid of bad, superfluous flesh, that the grass-fed hunter has been subjected to; for if the groom has done his duty by them, neither of these horses will have accumulated much more flesh than we like to see on hunters when they first begin to work, and when that flesh is good. We would have our second horse, the unshod one, taken into his stable early in August; and during the latter end of that month and the next, in addition to his daily exercise, he should, about three times in a fortnight, have a gentle sweat in clothes, which is best effected in a trot, in a large fallow field that has been lately harrowed down, and which is firm, not soft, to the tread.
But we fancy we hear the question asked, Is it not necessary to give physic to all hunters when the summer is past, and previously to their taking the field again in the winter? We answer, No. The principal end of physicking hunters is to allay excitement, occasioned by severe work and high keep; and the next, for the benefit of their legs. Thus, for example, as the first-named horse (the one that has been in gentle work throughout the summer), will not sweat so easily as the unshod one, a light dose or two of physic may be serviceable to him during his first preparation for the field, say in August or September, as the means of saving his legs, should he be a strong-constituted horse, and have thrown up too much flesh. But there is no absolute necessity for physic at this period to horses that have been properly treated throughout the summer, and not suffered to get foul or fat; and it will be given with more advantage to them after they have been some time at work, or nearer to the commencement of the hunting season, which, after the manner of the racing stable, may be termed a second preparation. We think, however, we cannot do better here than to quote the following passage on this subject from the April No. 1835, of the New Sporting Magazine (vol. viii. p. 353), as the ideas exactly correspond with our own.
"To horses summered in the house, physic is now only administered when it is wanted, as is the case with the race-
horse; and the groom or his master ought to be able to say when. There are many directing symptoms with horses in work, which cannot escape an observant eye; and we do not, as formerly, wait for the swollen leg or the running sore. The barbarous practice, also, of three doses in succession (as was the practice with the grass-fed hunter on being stabled), 'the first to stir up the humours, and the last to carry them off,' with two strong urine balls to wind up, by way of a remedy for consequent debility, is also happily exploded. The strength of the dose is likewise greatly diminished, and consequently all danger is avoided. We take upon ourselves to say, there is no more risk attending administering physic to a horse, than there is in giving him a pailful of cold water, perhaps not so much; that is, provided the drugs are good, and well put together. We, however, strongly recommend all sportsmen and others to obtain physic from the profession, as veterinarians bestow much attention on the making of it up, and obtaining the best aloes, in which there is much difference. The sooner it passes off the better; and this will be much expedited by three loose bran mashes on the day preceding the dose, and exercise previously to its working. Recollect there is no virtue in this case in the aloes, beyond doing its duty in clearing and cleansing the bowels. Calomel, when administered to the horse, should not be hurried, as it is intended to act upon the system, and should therefore be given twelve hours previous to giving the purge. Horses whose bowels are difficult to be moved, should be kept short of hay a day or two before they are physicked, with an additional allowance of bran mashes, and encouraged to drink before they experience nausea."
It may, perhaps, be well to state the "directing symptoms" for administering physic to the hunter, which are thus detailed by Nimrod:—"Among the distinguishing symptoms of foulness in a hunter are these: He appears unwell, without any specific disease: his mouth is hot, his eyes look dull, and sometimes yellow: his coat loses some of its usual gloss, and stares between the hip-bones, and on the poll of the neck: his appetite frequently remains good, but he is more than usually anxious for water: his heels are scurfy, and sometimes crack; he stales often, but a little at a time: his urine is highly-coloured, and his excrements hard, and often covered with a slimy fluid: he is dull when at exercise, and frequently coughs without any appearance of having taken cold: he loses flesh, and looks dry in his skin: his legs and ears are often cold, the latter frequently wet after exercise and sometimes deprived of part of their natural covering: his crest falls; the whole tone of his system appears relaxed; and, without his groom exactly knowing why, he is not the horse he was a week ago." (Condition of Hunters, p. 173.) To this we have nothing to add, unless it be to congratulate owners of horses on the terrors of physicking them having vanished with the present improved method of administering the doses; and on the fact, that only a few days' cessation from labour is now required to afford them this relief. We should say, that a hunter is never more fit to go through a sharp run, than on the tenth day after his physic has "set."
But we do not consider that we can close this part of our subject, without a few words on the treatment of the grass-fed hunter, as there are still some who yet abandon him to shift for himself in the summer, and are content to see him return to his stall in August, the very reverse of what he was when he left it in May. Nor is this the worst of it. He cannot be reinstated in the condition in which he was when he went out in May, until hunting is three parts over the following season. However, we will lay down what we consider the most likely plan to pursue, to fit him for the work he is intended for:—
From the redundancy of blood and humours, and distension of bowels beyond their proper size, which the grass-
Treatment of Horses. fed hunter acquires, all violent exertion must be avoided, until such obstructions are removed, which must be the work of time. It is in vain to attempt to hurry a horse in this state into condition, but the first step taken should be to have him clipped, for reasons which we shall presently give. Long-continued slow exercise is the chief agent in hardening his muscles, and strengthening his organs of respiration; but all galloping when in the state in which he will be for the first two months, to get off his flesh, is very highly to be reprobated, as his legs will surely suffer by it, if nothing else does. Two light doses of physic may be useful to him, if he have had none given him at grass; and care should be taken not to use the brush to his coat till the month of November be passed, in case he should not be clipped. Again, veterinary science has informed us, that danger always accrues to horses in the vicissitudes of heat and cold, from one state to its opposite; but more from the latter to the former, as an excitant to general inflammation. Horses taken from grass, then, should be put into very cool stables, and the fewer in one stable the better, for at least the first month. Windows should be left open day and night, merely taking the precaution of coarse matting, or anything else that will stop the entrance of flies; and nothing does that better than matting, frequently saturated with water. Having been clipped, and kept out several hours in the day in slow work (which, by the way, grooms are too often shy of), increasing his pace gradually as his condition progresses, the grass-fed hunter may be brought fit to look at by the first week in November; but he will be at least by a stone a worse horse than he was when he was turned out. We are no friends to quacking in either man or beast; but, knowing that mischief to horses so frequently arises from a long respite from work in the winter, unless some preventive measures are had recourse to, we recommend the repetition of a light dose or two of physic to the grass-fed hunter during frost, or even during open weather, about Christmas.
Having recommended the fashionable operation of clipping to the grass-fed hunter, we will give our reasons for having done so. Nine horses out of ten, treated as he has been treated in the summer, break out into a cold sweat, after work, during the first part of the season, the natural consequence of debility; and the dew on their coat has all the chilling influence of a wet blanket on their body. The removal of the coat by the scissors, then, although it is no remedy for the former, prevents the ill effects of the latter; which, by producing cold on the surface of the body, occasions a determination of blood to the lungs, or other important viscera, and is a great enemy to condition. Although we deny the necessity of clipping a horse that has been properly summered (for, admitting that he may have a long coat, he will not in that case break out after work), we allow it the merit of expediting condition, by giving increase of bulk, and promoting the vigour of the horses' renovating powers; and, therefore, in this case useful. Looking at it, however, in another light, we find many objections to it; amongst the greatest of which is the deprivation of the protection of the coat or hair, to an animal so much in want of it as the hunter is, and therefore an outrage on nature. In fact, it is, to a certain degree, a substitute for good grooming, and as such will continue to be in favour with many grooms, as also with such of their masters as submit to be dictated to by them, or who may pay too much regard to appearances.
Having alluded to grooms, a remark or two may not be ill placed. Such of them as have the care of large studs cannot be expected to work, but to overlook those who are under them; and their responsibility is considerable. There is much in the choice of helpers; for none but persons who have narrowly watched it, are aware of the effects of a good dressing to a hunter, not merely in having his skin cleared
from impurity, and in improving its elasticity, as well as the tone and colour of the hair, which may be termed the Treatment of Horses. complexion of a horse, but it greatly promotes general health by its effect on the circulation of the blood, as well as all other secretions, and in bad weather is a substitute for exercise.
Good stables are indispensable to the well-doing of hunters, equally so with a comfortable house and a warm bed to those who ride them. Even the veterinary professors have at length acknowledged the benefit of the genial warmth of a stable to horses at work, although, in common with ourselves, they insist on the necessity of well ventilated stables. No doubt it is injurious to any animal to breathe an under-oxygenated air, and the effluvia arising from animal excretions are injurious to eyes and lungs. A hunter should live in a temperature of about 63° of Fahrenheit in the winter, and as much below that point as it can be made in the summer, by means of exclusion of the sun, open doors, &c. But it is essential that a stable in the winter should not only be warm but dry; and if not dry, the ground under and around it should be drained. A delicate horse never arrives at perfection of condition in a damp stable, and it operates powerfully against all others, often being the cause of fever in the feet. Stalls should not be more than six feet wide, nor raised towards the manger; but there should be a slight inclination in the flagging towards the centre of them, to enable the urine to find its way to a drain, which there always ought to be, as it contributes much to cleanliness, and consequently to health. "Loose places," or "boxes," as they are termed, are most desirable for all horses after severe work, and nearly all veterinary surgeons (more especially the late Mr Turner, to whom the public is so much indebted for his illustration of the navicular disease in the foot) have given it as their opinion, that if all horses were suffered to lie loose after work, there would not be half the cases of lameness in the feet that now occur. Desirable as such treatment may be, it is universally impracticable, on account of the space which large studs would occupy; but every sportsman should have boxes about his premises, and his hunters should be invariably put into them for two or three days after work. To their general use there is one objection, although not a serious one. Horses always lying loose are apt to refuse to lie down in stalls, when removed to premises where boxes cannot be had, but they become reconciled to them after a few days. It is, however, the opinion of a celebrated sportsman that if a hunter should have stood his work ten seasons being always tied up, he would have stood it twelve if he had lain loose.
We quote the following extract from Nimrod on Condition of Hunters, on the subject of warm stables. After proving, by the fact of the horse degenerating in all cold countries, that warmth is congenial to its existence, he thus proceeds:—"They who attend to such matters will find that the constitution and habit of a horse undergo a change when kept in a warm stable, favourable, no doubt, to the work he has to perform as a hunter in the stable of a hard-riding man. He is not that gross animal which he might otherwise be, if a hard feeder, and kept in a state more nearly approaching to a state of nature. This we may attribute to the increase of insensible perspiration occasioned by increased circulation, whereby the grosser particles of the body fly off and are got rid of. In this state he would bear some comparison with a well-fed English farmer, when put to perform feats of activity with a man of more refined habits of life, where nineteen times out of twenty he would be defeated." Again: "As there is an analogy between a man and a horse in work, let us carry it a little further, and ask, Whether, after a hard day's exercise in the winter, a man would recover sooner if he passed his evening in a warm room, or if he passed it in a bivouac, or
Treatment of Horses. Treatment in a room that was cold and damp. He concludes by giving it as his opinion, that if it be possible to get a horse to look well in a cold stable, it is not in the power of a groom to put him into the height of condition in a damp one; and in this we heartily concur.
We subjoin Nimrod's plan of stabling for six hunters. "I would have," says he, "two four-stalled stables, in which I would keep only six horses, that is, three in each; and I would have a box at the end of each. If possible, I would have a southern aspect, with windows opening from the top or downward, or else on a pivot in the centre, and placed so high in the wall, that, when open, the air may be circulated through the stable, without affecting one horse more than another, and the height of the interior should be only twelve feet in the clear. I would have the stalls paved nearly flat, with only a trifling inclination to the centre; in each of which there should be a small grating over the drain, and the stalls should be no more than six feet wide. There should be at least twelve feet behind the horses, and the exterior walls and doors should be very thick. The wooden partition walls of the boxes should be only 9 feet high, with wooden bolts to the doors; and each box should not exceed 10 feet square. The saddle-room, well fitted up with saddle-cupboards, boiler, &c., should be in the centre of the building; in the front of which there should be a passage, under cover, for horses to stand in when their legs are washed. Of ventilation I say nothing, that being a matter of course; but I would have the sides of the stalls 9 feet high at the head, with small iron racks, and pillar-reins for each horse to be dressed in. I should be very particular about the stall-posts, for these are frequently the cause of severe injury. When I went to see the king's stables at the palace at Pimlico, I was astonished to see almost every other horse in them with capped hocks. On inspecting the stall-posts, I perceived the cause. They were of fluted stone, and with angles, which proved that Mr. Nash (the architect) knows nothing about the inside of stables. Stall-posts should be made of wood, quite smooth and circular; and they should extend to the ceiling, or be at least ten feet high."
Paddocks.—Some persons turn their hunters into the fields in the summer, because they have no small paddocks, or any outlets to their buildings, and are averse to their horses remaining all the year round in the house. Nothing, however, is easier than making temporary paddocks, or outlets that will restrain stallions, or any horse that may be put into them, without the chance of their breaking out of them. Let a small space, say 30 or 40 yards, be hurdled around, and the hurdles lined with faggots reared up from seven to eight feet high. The faggots will be all the better for the exposure to the air during a summer; and as horses cannot see through a fence of this sort, they will never attempt to break through it.
Food.—The proper feeding of hunters has much to do with their condition, and likewise with their remaining sound. Food should be proportioned to work, and it should also be of the very best quality. Hay that has been much heated in the stack is above all things to be avoided, as, from its powerful diuretic properties, it debilitates, and creates thirst; and mow-burnt or heated oats are equally productive of mischief. Eight or ten pounds of hay per day are as much as any hunter should eat, and that which is produced on dry upland ground is best. Indeed, we are far from thinking that rich meadow hay, finely scented as it is, and apparently so full of nourishment, is fitted for any description of horse that is required to go fast, and we are quite certain that thousands of horses are destroyed annually by the effects of hay and water. The latter cannot be too soft, and when not so, it should be kept in the stable some days previous to use, and with a small portion of bran in it. Mr. Percival (Hippopathology, p. 25) mentions forty-
nine horses being killed in one stud, in France, by a disease produced by eating bad hay and oats.
Treatment of Horses. But nothing puts the groom's knowledge of the art of feeding hunters more to the test than the management of such as are either naturally thick-winded, or afflicted with chronic cough; and as in man the digestive organs are oftener than any other disordered, so the respiratory organs in the horse are the most common seat of disease. It is, however, in the power of a groom, by great attention to feeding, keeping the habit of body from becoming foul and plethoric, and well regulated work, to make horses of this description tolerably fit to go with hounds; whereas in bad hands they would be nearly useless, at all events dangerous to ride. Such horses are generally hearty feeders, and when so, should have a setting muzzle, as used with race-horses, put on them on the night before hunting, unless they have been out with hounds within three days. Water also should be sparingly given to them on that day, and not after three o'clock P.M. Frequent mild aperients, or alternative medicines, are very efficacious here; for, as in the human subject the lungs often become the seat of disease as a second cause of indigestion, the state of the digestive organs should be minutely attended to with horses of this description.
A broken-winded horse is never seen in a stud of hunters; but Nimrod's remark on this subject is in accordance with what we have now written upon it. "Most veterinary surgeons," he says, "attribute this disease to the consequences of high keep. Here, no doubt, they are in a great measure correct; but if good grooming were not for the most part a match for the effect of high keep, what would be the fate of our race-horses, which eat almost as much corn as they can swallow from the first month of their existence? Amongst them a broken-winded horse is a rarity."
Many nostrums are prescribed for thick-winded horses—amongst them, carrots in the winter, and green meat in the summer. We approve of a few carrots in the winter, but object to green meat, unless in small quantities. Is not flatulency the distinctive feature of a disordered respiration? And what promotes that equally with loading and distending the stomach with green food? The small dimensions of a horse's stomach evidently show what nature intended him for, namely, to go fast; and the pathologist would very soon convince us that, in proportion as that organ is distended, will the respiratory organs be oppressed. Hence the indispensable practice of not allowing hunters their usual allowance of food and water on the morning of hunting; as also of putting the setting muzzle on the racer the night before he runs. The food most proper for all horses, but particularly for such as are not perfect in their wind, is that which contains most nourishment in the smallest compass or space.
But we must not overlook the treatment of the sound hunter before and after hunting; as we consider the lives of more than half of those hunters which have been lost from the effects of severe chases, to have been lost from want of knowledge of how they should have been treated, at either the one or the other of these periods. Nimrod, in his letters on this subject, doubts whether it be in the power of hounds to maintain a chase long enough to cause the death of a horse, fairly ridden with them, provided that horse have been properly treated in the summer, and is in what is called strong work, or quite fit to go, on the day of the run. Without stopping to argue this point, which is not capable of proof, we will proceed to show in what state a hunter ought to be taken into the field, to meet fox-hounds, giving him fair play; and the man who takes him there when not fit to go, must always be prepared for the consequences.
We consider a hunter, in proper condition, equal to at
Treatment of Horses. least three days' hunting in a fortnight, taking the average of sport, which will, of course, at some certain periods, send him oftener into the field in one given time than in another, as, after a severe day, he should have a week's clear rest. But since the second-horse fashion has been so general, it is impossible to speculate on this point, as it so often happens that one of the two horses the sportsman sends to cover, returns home without having done much. The chief point, however, to be insisted upon is, that the hunter should have a good gallop, causing him to sweat freely, on the day before he goes to hounds, and if for half a mile on rising ground, it will be more favourable to his wind. His food on that day should also be attended to, in reference to his constitutional peculiarities; for, if not the best winded horse in the stud, or given to throw off his meat on his road to cover, he should have no water after three o'clock the preceding afternoon, with the exception of a few swallows to make him relish his corn, on the morning of hunting. Sending hunters out now with full bellies has no excuse; whereas one was found for it, when they left their stables five hours sooner in the morning than they do at present, and returned to them often five hours later. We allude to past days in which there were few artificially made covers, and when foxes were found by the "drag," through long chains of woods, and certainly ran over much more ground than modern foxes do, which, being generally bred near game preserves, run shorter, and are not so stout as formerly.
After Hunting.—The treatment of a horse now will depend on what he has been doing. If not a severe day, no further notice of him is requisite than to ascertain whether he feeds as usual; and if not, an alternative ball,1 with a liberal allowance of tepid water, will soon restore his appetite, by allaying the over-excitement that has checked it. It is after a severe day's work that danger to a hunter is to be apprehended, the consequence of over-excitement of the vascular system, and he should be in this case narrowly watched. If merely fatigued, such are the restorative powers of the animal, rest, in a large loose box, with an hour's exercise daily in the open air, will soon bring him about; but we should be on the alert against fever. Here, however, we generally have notice,—some directing symptoms which cannot be mistaken, such as hurried respiration, extreme thirst, restlessness in his stall, a considerable relaxation of the muscles in the interstices of the hips, reddened eyelids, and a quick pulse. But unfortunately for hard-riding sportsmen, it too often happens, that such is the rapidity with which what is termed accidental inflammation takes place in the horse, that the most prompt measures will not always arrest its progress, and the most common termination of it here is in the feet. Not only does the animal suffer great pain, but should he not cast his hoofs entirely (the fore feet are most commonly affected), he becomes what is called pomic-footed, and of no value afterwards as a hunter. Knowing this to be the case, we are advocates for some prophylactic measures to be taken after a very hard day; something repellent and sedative administered, which may not only prevent an inflammatory attack, but, by cooling the system, and consequently restoring the appetite, enable the horse to go sooner into the field again, than if he had been entirely abandoned to his own restorative powers.
But the most critical period with the over-ridden hunter is when he first appears to show distress, which he often does on his road home, or even before he quits the field; and here mistakes have been made, which have caused the death of many a good animal. In the first place, his rider
fancies it necessary to drag him home, perhaps many miles on a cold winter's evening, to "his own comfortable stall," than which, just at this time, a large and cold stable, and the first he could be put into, would be far more beneficial to him. Again, he says, "I'll not do any thing to him till I get him home, when I will have him bled;" whereas, since all horses that die from exertion beyond the limits of vital power, die from suffocation, it will then be, in all probability, too late, as instant relief is wanted. A stimulating cordial is likewise at this time good (a pint of sherry as good as any other), but both are bad if inflammation has commenced; also keeping up a strong determination of blood to the surface by friction of the body, head, and legs, with warm clothing afterwards on the body and head; a well littered down stall, with plenty of fresh air. A gallon of blood should be at first drawn; and if the increased action of the heart and arteries continues, the horse should be well blistered behind the elbows, and lose another gallon of blood. Blood-letting from the foot veins is also highly to be recommended in cases of extreme exhaustion, after a hard day with hounds. It is a very simple operation, and can never do harm; but we advise it to be performed by a veterinary surgeon.
They who have never before experienced it, may be alarmed by an inward noise in a distressed horse, which may be mistaken for a beating of the heart, whereas it proceeds from a convulsive motion of the abdominal muscles, or muscles of the belly. It is, however, a symptom of deep distress, and is only relieved by relief given to the lungs, by bleeding and other preventive means.
Treatment of Horses' Legs.—We have already said that the management of horses' legs forms part of the science of the stable, and a most important part too. It is no where so well understood as in racing stables; but from the violent nature of his work, the hunter is equally indebted to it. The barbarous practice of blistering all four legs previously to turning out is now happily exploded; but as in less violent exertion than following hounds, a certain insecurity from accidents is inseparable from the delicacy of all animal structure, the legs of hunters will occasionally fall amiss. It being useless, however, without stating the extent of the injury, to talk of prescribing remedies, we have only to state, that a very efficient one has been found for the torturing one of firing, in many cases where the actual cautery was considered as the only one. For example, for ligamentary enlargements, cases of enlarged joints, tendons showing symptoms of giving way, or any other appearance in the limbs, of a departure from their primitive tone and vigour. This consists in the application, during the non-hunting months, or any other period of rest, of the mercurial charge, in either of the following forms. It consists of the common mercurial plaster (not ointment) of the shops, made up according to the London Pharmacopoeia; and in the proportion of half a pound to a leg, applied in a warm and consequently liquefied state, and when covered by deer's hair, bound to the limb by means of a linen roller. At the end of a fortnight, the stitches of the bandage being decayed, the charge will slough off, when another, if necessary, is put on. It is to the highly absorbent property of mercury that the benefit here derived is to be ascribed; and it is no small recommendation to it that, in addition to the general restoration of the limb, the painful operation of the actual cautery, as also the blemish occasioned by it, are avoided. Major's remedy has also of late years very much superseded firing, and has been applied with great success to the Reiver, Seythian, and several other capital race-horses. It requires, however, to be applied by a very skilful hand, as
1 The following alternative and sedative medicines are found efficacious at this time:—Cinnabar of antimony, 3 oz.; balsam of sulphur, 2 oz.; camphor, 1 oz.; nitre, 4 oz. To be made into ten balls; one ball a doze. These are known among grooms by the term "red balls."