CHAPTER XXII. 

 RIDING FOR MEN. 



BY T. C. P. OF TORONTO. 

 CHOICE OF A SADDLE HORSE. 



YOUR weight must more or less govern your choice of a 

 horse to ride. But a fourteen-hands cob, if made right, and 

 standing square on his legs, can carry a heavy man satis- 

 factorily. It is a question of build rather than height, but 

 a tall man looks best on a tall horse. A horse 15.3, if 

 properly put together, is the best for general use. And 

 now, when you have sufficiently indulged your own judg- 

 ment, get a veterinary surgeon to examine him before you 

 buy. 



As to age, a horse may be broken and ridden gently 

 when he is three, a little harder when he is four, and with 

 some freedom at five; but he must be six before you do 

 really hard work with him. An immature animal will soon 

 show signs of the machine having been too severely taxed. 

 Therefore buy a six-year old when you can. He is over so 

 many troubles that beset the earlier years of his life, and is 

 at his best, if he has been judiciously used. 



The horse must be sound as a matter of course, but on 

 that inexhaustible subject it is unnecessary here to speak 

 at any length. Avoid delicate horses. Look out for the 

 ordinary self-evident blemishes, as splints near the knee or 

 near the tendons, spavins, blindness, ringbones, sidebones, 



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