90 SHANDROVKA 



Shires on horses even like this chestnut mare, if I were able 

 to get animals of the long, flat-shouldered sort, like the grey 

 gelding I sold to the Grand Duke Nicholas ; but the require- 

 ments of Russians are not the same as those of Leicestershire 

 men, who care little or nothing for looks or high action, so 

 long as their mounts can cross a difficult country boldly and 

 safely, can gallop and stay, and have good manners. 



At present in England there are only two kinds of saddle 

 horses, namely, racehorses (including flat racehorses, chasers 

 and hurdle racers) and hunters, with their dwarf representa- 

 tives polo ponies. The cycle has killed the park hack ; and 

 no one wants a horse on a road except in a trap. Whether 

 for racing or for crossing a country, we must have a horse 

 with light shoulders and neck ; in fact, the very opposite to 

 those possessed by the hackney. As I have said before, the 

 riding requirements of Continental people are different to 

 ours ; and if the hackney suits, as it appears to do, large 

 dealers like Mr. Oppenheimer, I have no doubt it will pay 

 breeders in Ireland to use this cross with a view to the 

 Continental riding market, as well as to the home light har- 

 ness trade. 



About this time when I was at home, I received a letter 

 from General Palitzyne accepting my terms for a six months' 

 engagement to begin on the first of the following September, 

 and also a letter from Colonel Kasnakof telling me that the 

 mare I had brought out for him had turned roarer, and that 

 if I wished to preserve his good opinion of me, I would send 

 him out another in exchange for her. I replied that such a 

 demand made for the first time, five months after he had 

 received her, and after his repeated expressions of satisfaction, 

 was out of the question, and that I did not choose to purchase 

 anyone's good opinion. Knowing that many horses go wrong 

 in their wind in Russia, on account of the unsanitary conditions 

 which exist in the vast majority of stables belonging to 



