33 THE HORSE. 



The road.horse should be high in the forehand ; round in the 

 barrel ; and deep in the chest : the saddle will not then press too far 

 ibrward, but tiie girths will remain lo'dkout crupper, firmly fixed in their 

 proper place. 



A hackney is far more valuable for the pleasantness of his paces, and 

 his safety, good temper, and endurance, than for his sj)eed. We rarely 

 want to go more tlian eight or ten miles in an hour ; and, on a journey, 

 not more than six or seven. The fast horses, and especially the fast 

 trotters, are not often easy in their paces, and although they may peform 

 very extraordinary feats, are disabled and worthless when the slower horse 

 is in his prime. 



Most of our readers probably are horsemen. Their memories will 

 supply them with many an instance of intelligence and fidelity in the 

 horse, and particularly in the hackney — the every-day companion of 

 man. A friend of ours rode thirty miles from home on a young horse 

 which he had bred, and which had never before been in that part of 

 the country. The road was difficult to find, but by dint of inquiry he 

 at length reached the place he sought. Two years passed over, and 

 he had again occasion to take the same journey. No one rode this 

 horse but himself, and he was perfectly assured that the animal had not 

 since been in that direction. Three or four miles before he reached his 

 journey's end he was benighted. He had to traverse moor and com- 

 mon, and he could scarcely see his horse's head. The rain began to 

 pelt. " Well," thought he, " here I am, far from any house, and know 

 not, nor can I see an inch of my road. I have heard much of the 

 memory of the horse, — it is my only hope now, — so there," throwing 

 the reins on his horse's neck, "go on." In half an hour he was safe at 

 his friend's gate. 



The following anecdote, given on the authority of Professor Kruger of 

 Halle, proves both the sagacity and fidelity of the horse. — A friend of his, 

 riding home through a wood in a dark night, struck his head against the 

 branch of a tree, and fell from his horse stunned. The steed immediately 

 returned to the house which they had lately left, and which was now closed, 

 and the family in bed, and pawed at the door until some one rose and 

 opened it. He turned about, and the man wondering at the affaii", followed 

 him : the faithful and intelligent animal led him to the place where his 

 master lay senseless on the ground. 



Cunningham, in his valuable account of New South Wales, vol. i. 

 p. 298, says, " A friend of mine in the habit of riding a good deal, found 

 that whenever he approached a gully, his sagacious horse invariably 

 opposed his wishes to cross at the particular spot he had been accus- 

 tomed to, always endeavouring to lead off to another part of the gully, 

 where no passage was known to exist by his rider. Resolving to see 

 whither the cunning rogue would go, he gave him the rein, and soon 

 found himself carried over the gully by a route he had never before 

 followed. Still, however, thinking that the former way was the nearest, 

 he was curious enough to have both measured, when he found the 

 horse's judgment correct; that way being the nearest by several hundred 

 yards." 



Of the paces of the hackney, and of horses generally, and the principle 

 of the walk, me trot, the canter, and the gallop, we shall be better able to 

 speak, when tne structure of the horse, varying in dilFerent breeds, has 

 been explainea. 



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