OF FARRIERY. 



449 



breaking and education of our road Horses 

 are too generally incomplete. A good mouth 

 should be secured, neither hard and insensible, 

 nor too exquisitely sensible ; which latter ex- 

 treme cau:^es the Horse to ride loose necked, 

 and his head, in the language of a practical 

 author, to vibrate like a pendulum. The 

 nag should be set moderately upon his 

 haunches, as in the riding school, which will 

 enable him to carry his fore-quarters lightly 

 and pleasantly to the rider, and also to descend 

 a hill with more ease and safety ; the doins: 

 which in perfection, is one of the highest 

 qualities in a hackney. The Horse being low 

 or ill-formed in the shoulders, that the saddle 

 will ride forward ; or, in the horseman's 

 phrase, cock-throppled, which is to say, having 

 the crest reversed, that a martingale be re- 

 quired to keep his head in its proper place, 

 are great, and being irremediable defects, 

 should be guarded against in breeding, by 

 attention to the well-known principle — like 

 produces like. In these confirmed cases of 

 mal-conformation, there are no remedies worth 

 regard, but the martingale and the crupper ; 

 and however unfashionable the latter, it is 

 still preferable to the insecurity of riding upon 

 a saddle gradually shifting towards the Horse's 

 neck, there being no eminence or form of 

 withers adapted to its support in its place. 

 The natural paces of the Horse are walk, trot, 

 canter, and gallop ; and in this country, the 

 artificial paces of padding and racking have 

 long since been out of use ; yet cantering is 

 with us almost an artificial pace, our road 

 Horses being so universally accustomed to the 

 trot, that few will canter handsomely and 

 steadily. The reverse of this is actually the 

 case in other countries, where Horses, from 

 disuse of the trot in work, almost forget that 



natural pace. In breaking the colt, it should 

 not be neglected, as it usually is, to teach him 

 a handsome, safe, and steady canter, more 

 especially if he naturally incline to that pace, 

 so useful and pleasant in a variety of respects : 

 for example, as a lady's pad, or summer 

 hackney : and in case of the Horse havino' 

 much blood and delicacy, an occasional canter 

 of a mile, being a great relief from the shaking 

 of the hard road in a trot. Nor is there any 

 ground for the common apprehension that, 

 being taught to canter, will render a Horse 

 less steady in his trot ; that depends upoii 

 good riding ; and the present writer has 

 known capital trotters also handsome and 

 good canterers. 



The exercise of Horses in constant work, 

 should never be of the speedy or rattling kind ; 

 their labour is, in general, sufficient to wear 

 out their legs and feet full soon enoug-h. 

 \\ alking exercise alone, will keep a hackney 

 in good condition : beyond this, the slow trot, 

 the moderate journey-trot, and the canter 

 should not be exceeded. 



The nag may be accustomed and trained to 

 that pace which is preferred and most used 

 by the master ; and a skilful groom may act 

 the part of the riding-master, and improve a 

 Horse greatly in his mouth, paces, and habits 

 Many Horses, good in nature and really valu- 

 able, may have been rudely and imperfectly 

 broken. Such are apt to mix and run their 

 paces one into another, shuffling between walk 

 and trot, and between trot and canter. It is 

 the business of a good groom during exercise, 

 to correct these errors of progression, and to 

 accustom the Horse to change freely and 

 easily from one pace to the other. The vice 

 of shying and starting also, may be, to a con- 

 siderable degree, remedied in exercise. The 

 5 X 



