'CUTTING' AND 'BRUSHING.' 173 



that. What is meant is that an unshod horse, or 

 even one wearing tips, never hits his leg with the 

 opposing foot ; one reason for this being because 

 he wears away his heels in their proper economical 

 ratio and form, and thus gets a natural 'tread.' 

 Nature never meant him to knock himself about 

 so awkwardly at every step. Cutting is always 

 accompanied by deterioration of action, and diminu- 

 tion of speed, and then all his defection is reckoned 

 up together, and the unfortunate horse (instead of 

 his master) is put down as a ' rip,' although he may 

 perhaps be only a victim of routine. 



The eye of 'fashion' too often looks through 

 that of its coachman when estimating action, and 

 thus it has become callous, so to speak, and in- 

 sensible to the elegance of the natural action of 

 such a graceful animal. Mayhew says that ' pride 

 has no brains, and but a very limited amount of 

 intellect.' Let pride, or ' fashion,' just stoop to the 

 use of tips, and then their coachmen would gradually 

 come round. Coachmen are not all fools, any more 

 than they are all sages, although they are all pre- 

 judiced ; and few of them nowadays are as in- 

 terested as their class formerly was in bolstering up 

 trade interests. We find that they mostly acquire 

 an affection for their horses as they look upon 

 them, and they should not be altogether discouraged 

 from so doing barring some unfortunate animal 

 that is obliged to become a crib-biter, &c., but in 

 favour of which they are generally willing to admit 

 either pluck or something else. They cannot under- 



