THE SADDLE-HORSE 57 



tendency to daisy-cutting is a source of danger. One wants 

 a horse to lift up his legs and bend his knees, but only 

 in moderation. The racehorse rarely carries his head as the 

 rider wants his mount to do. In the earlier stages of a race 

 the competitors bend their necks, but when it comes to gallop- 

 ing, they stick out their heads, and many of them carry the 

 habit into private life. On the whole, the chances are against 

 the thorough-bred making a good hack if he has been sub- 

 jected to the life and discipline of the training stable ; but if 

 he exhibits an aptitude for the humbler vocation he has great 

 qualities to recommend him, and will probably prove excep- 

 tionally good. 



A little blood is, however, a great desideratum in a saddle- 

 horse, and in general there are no better animals for the purpose 

 than half-breds, who unite the grace and fashion of their blue 

 blood with the sedater demeanour of a humbler parentage ; but 

 in this respect, since hacks are often, are indeed for the most part, 

 needed for harder work than an hour's trot or gentle canter in 

 the Park, the increasing habit of breeding from unsound sires 

 is to be regretted. Diseases of horseflesh are to a very great 

 extent hereditary, and it frequently happens that a sire not good 

 enough to be kept for thorough-bred mares, because of some 

 chronic or acute infirmity, is set aside for half-breds or others 

 of coarse blood. By this means a breed of unsound animals 

 is propagated. A Committee of the House of Lords sat to 

 investigate this subject some sixteen years ago in 1874 and 

 accumulated much evidence, though the practical results which 

 followed were small ; the committee, in fact, ended somewhat 

 abortively without arriving at any special recommendations. 



The perfect hack must have a variety of excellences such as, 

 indeed, are very rarely found in one horse, but the real requi- 

 sites may perhaps be reduced to four. In the first place, it goes 

 without saying that he must be free from any such obvious 

 disqualifications as rank unsoundness or pronounced vice. 

 There may be an otherwise good hack that * makes a bit of a 

 noise,' and a rider may hesitate to discard a good-looking, 



