Exercise, 269 



from Belfast to Carrickfergus^ a distance of about twelve english 

 miles, and is in the habit of st opping' at a half-way house^ uherc lie 

 constantly takes a glass of \vhiskey, and thinking his Horse (of which 

 he is exceedingly careful andfondj entitled to the same indulgence^ 

 he as reg-ularly pours a glass of spirits upon a roll of bread, which 

 the animal eats with the greatest apparent delight. Nay, so devoted 

 is the Horse become to his dram, that neither gentle means nor se- 

 verity will ever prevail upon him to quit the place without it ; and my 

 informant, saw the carrier ilog him severely, in order to induce him 

 to proceed without the whiskey, but all in vain, for he persevered in 

 refusing to budge an inch^ until it was given to him. What an ad- 

 mirable fact for the moralist, as to the effect of good or bad habits ! 

 But, to return to the aflfair of exercise : it must be perceived that 

 the greater part of the foregoing remarks, apply but in a very small 

 degree, or not at all, to the case of racers, hunters, or the pleasure 

 Horses of the great, which, it is well known, are exercised with the 

 utmost regularity. Nor scarcely indeed, to the draft Horses:, of 

 either the higher or lower orders, but chiefly to the saddle and plea- 

 sure Horses of the middling classes, who cannot afford to keep 

 servants for the sole purpose of attending to them. For, as to such 

 as are employed in agriculture, in factories, mail, stage, and hack- 

 ney coaches, as well as all those belonging to common carriers, very 

 few diseases, it is well known, arc found to arise amongst them 

 from too little exercise. Now, and then, however, they suffer from 

 injudicious management in this particular. For, it sometimes hap- 

 pens, especially in the case of stage-coach or pust-Horses, that when 

 their work has been unusually severe, and they fall off in condition 

 in consequence of it, the proprietor orders their labour to be sus-* 



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