84 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



please to call them so, we should do Avell to cross with the 

 racing thoroughbred. And for docility and gentleness of 

 behavior until the moment of supreme action comes, we have 

 nothing that equals a tirst-class thoroughbred of the running 

 family. Take "Joe Daniels," for instance. A child can lead 

 him up and down before the judges' stand. He seems to be 

 conscious of a latent power that he can exert at any moment, 

 and does not choose to exercise until the proper time comes. 

 I have seen a thoroughbred led out, with no defiance in his 

 eye, no glory in his appearance, none of that fire and thunder 

 which we associate with fine breeding and a first-class horse ; 

 but when the saddle was put upon him, the rider mounted, 

 and the exercise had warmed him so that the moisture began 

 to start, then see how the veins begin to swell ; how the 

 jockey begins to feel the play of the muscles under the sad- 

 dle as the latent power begins to reveal itself; see how the 

 nostrils begin to show their lining of fiery red, and then — 

 how that horse begins to go ! And the farther he goes, the 

 foster he goes, and the harder he pulls. 



I have ridden the mns-nificent creature to which I have 

 referred under the saddle. She would take the first four 

 miles as every respectable man ought to take a horse the first 

 four miles, easily, merely jogging ; but when she had reached 

 that point, fixed by good judgment and her own good sense, 

 I could feel her muscles begin to work under me, and she 

 would begin to move up on the bit and settle herself to her 

 gait, and the faster she went, the better she felt. I could 

 feel the swell of the great muscles under the saddle as she 

 gathered nervously for her leaps ; her neck would stretch out 

 and become lowered more to the line of her body ; her nostrils 

 open and expand at every jump ; her ears would come 

 back clf^ser and closer to her neck, like those of a cat when 

 vexed, and then how she would spin ! But when she had 

 spun her spin out, she would amble back to her stall so 

 gently, that were it not for the unquiet mouth and the linger- 

 ing fire in the eye, you would not suspect that she had such 

 lightning in her. 



I will detain you only to speak upon one other point. The 

 question has been asked me, and I will answer it, "What 

 makes a horse trot?" Well, it is not the whip, — that is one 



