154 HORSE AND MAN. 



are Exmoor and Dartmoor. Most people take for 

 granted that moors and prairies are level surfaces 

 of great extent, covered with grass, and as easy to 

 the feet as if they were paddocks. Mr. G. Eansom, 

 in his ' Horses and Roads,' quotes the account of a 

 Devonian : 



' Dartmoor is not a great wild flat, as many sup- 

 pose, but, on the contrary, it is for the most part a 

 continual succession of very steep, rough hills, or 

 ' tors,' and rugged ' coombes,' strewn with granite 

 rock and stones. Yet, in spite of all, besides the 

 bogs and chronic state of rain^ the herds of ponies 

 gallop fearlessly along the rough sides of the coombes, 

 down and up. It is a pretty sight to see them, 

 especially in the spring, with the foals by their sides.' 



Another writer, Lieut. W. Douglas, who has 

 been frequently quoted in these pages, is equally 

 strong on the subject : 



' From the moment a horse is foaled, we either 

 keep him in fields soft to tread upon, or in warm 

 stables, standing on soft straw, and then we are sur- 

 prised that his hoofs should become dry and brittle, 

 instead of keeping moist, tough, and hard. 



' In the Orkneys, in the mountains of Wales, the 

 wilds of Exmoor and Dartmoor, in many parts of the 

 continent of Europe, and for a considerable portion 

 of the rest of the globe, horses run about over rocks, 



