fatigues of labour. The saddle and cavalry 

 horse, if he exceed sixteen hands, is always 

 considered to be over-sized j and unless his 

 qualities be good, and his strength proportion- 

 ate, he ought in general to be rejected as unfit 

 for service. It is certainly true that a horse 

 should be chosen v/ith bodily powers adequate 

 to the weight which he is intended to bear ; 

 but if he be too bulky and long in the legs, the 

 weight of the rider, added to his own, will in 

 a short time prove destructive. 



In the earlier ages, prior to the invention of 

 gunpowder, horsemen wore ponderous armour. 

 The man, therefore, must have possessed great 

 muscular powers to enable him to sustain his 

 burthen; and the animal, to support both, 

 must have been such as those now used for 

 drays, waggons, &c. For a considerable pe- 

 riod also after a revolution in military tactics 

 •was effected by the use of gunpowder, large 

 horses were still retained, because the evolu- 

 tions of the cavalry being little known, the 

 horse were particularly employed in making 

 heavy charges on the army of an enemy ; for 

 which purpose large horses were found to be 

 most effective. Latterly, however, for a variety 



