THE SADDLE-HORSE 61 



in full practice of horsemanship, only the true-made ones can 

 trot fast (or slow) for ten miles straight on end, without ducking 

 and shaking their heads, a sure sign that an animal is getting 

 more or less sick of his job, and the ability so to do that dis- 

 tance at least is the highest test of the ideal hack. It goes 

 without saying that he must never catch his toe, brush an 

 ankle, or ' drop ' behind from any cause. There is no harm in 

 his being a trifle hot and inclined to catch hold in his fast 

 paces, but he must walk and not niggle. This sort of animal 

 is so rare that he is hardly appreciated, and, if found by a con- 

 noisseur, is as likely as not to be picked up for forty or fifty 

 pounds, the real value to a man fond of riding about the country 

 by himself being at least two hundred. 



An useless weed drafted out of a training stable, provided 

 he has good shoulders, and when he has been taught to open 

 gates (not a long process as a rule), is a capital poor man's con- 

 veyance to covert. These creatures, though too slow for racing, 

 can always gallop faster than any hunter that is at all likely to 

 be in the poor man's stable : they gallop easily too, though they 

 want kicking along ; and as they are to be had for next to 

 nothing the best plan is to keep them always at a gallop, and 

 replace them as fast as legs and feet wear out, which is not as 

 soon as might be expected. Of course all thorough-breds, par- 

 ticularly those which have been for any time in training, are 

 apt to be a trifle capricious and whimsical in temper, and the 

 quieter and lazier they are at starting the more necessary is it 

 to look out for squalls when a tempting bit of grass causes the 

 rider to set them fairly going, or some, to them, unusual appari- 

 tion meets their eyes. Ponies are good for boys to learn upon, 1 

 for sportsmen to ride up to the hill, and for old men to use as 

 walking-sticks. It is possible to hack them, but they are not 

 hacks in the true sense of the term. 



So much has been written in previous volumes of the Library 

 Hunting, Racing, and Driving as to the care of the horse 

 in the stable, that to dwell upon the subject here would be 



1 A good pony hack is worth his weight in gold. B. 



