IN SEARCH OF A HORSE. 21 



for draught, for another chapter ; but it is not out of 

 place to notice here a very common error. There is 

 not one horse in fifty that is equally adapted for the 

 saddle and for harness. I once had a galloway that 

 rarely stumbled in harness, though he would not have 

 carried the best rider, of feather weight, half a dozen 

 miles without as many falls. Yet he was perfectly 

 sound, and continued sound for five years that he 

 remained in my possession. 



To return from this digression ; if the object is 

 only a daily ride of half a dozen miles to and from 

 the counting-house, any horse not over-weighted is, 

 if sound, fully equal to the work ; but if the distance 

 materially exceeds ten or twelve miles a-day, it is by 

 no means every horse that can perform it ; more es- 

 pecially if the rider is averse to frequent walking or 

 to a slow pace. Some gentlemen are fond of long 

 rides, and will prefer the saddle to a stage even for a 

 journey of forty or fifty miles. After much observa- 

 tion, I am inclined to think that there are very few 

 horses to be found that are capable of carrying 

 weight, without distress, for more than fifty miles in 

 the course of a day ; or to bear the repetition, even 

 of this, in the course of the same week, without 

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