134 THE ROADSTER. 



nothing can beat a thoroughbred one. The more blood you have in horses 

 you drive, the better you will be able to do long and trying journeys. Still 

 such animals are scarcely what we should designate by the word coach horses. 

 If you have not very long stages to go, you can indulge your fancy by study- 

 ing from the old pictures the stamp of horse that was used formerly, before 

 the railways ran the coaches clean off the roads. It is not at all disagreeable 

 amusement going about and trying to find horses of the same stamp that 

 were used in those days. Of course, the very short tails which the coach 

 horses and posters had in those days very much alter the appearance of the 

 stamp of horse, and render it more difficult to procure the exact variety that 

 was formerly used, because if they exist they are so changed. An inexperi- 

 enced man cannot realize the extent to which a horse's appearance can be 

 altered by putting him on a long or a short tail. It is only to the well prac- 

 tised eye of a man very conversant with horses that the exact shape and 

 make can be detected under the altered circumstances of a long or a short 

 tail." — Dtike of Beaufort, " Driving" p. 77 et seq. 



THE ROADSTER. 



The roadster, although the offspring of selected English 

 racing stock, is an individual and national type, whose pop- 

 ularity is no longer confined entirely to this country. For 

 fast driving this horse is preeminent and those of the better 

 class are virtually thoroughbred animals of some known 

 prowess in the matter of speed. They are good and inter- 

 esting light wagon horses as they are capable of affording 

 amusement to the owner in the way of a " brush " or a " spin " 

 with some rival during the course of an afternoon's drive. 

 Owing to their " sporting associations" they are not appro- 

 priate for a woman to drive. These horses should be driven 

 in simple, plain, light harness to a correspondingly simple 

 and light vehicle ; the buggy is the carriage most commonly 

 used. Owing to the entire dissimilarity existing between 

 the roadster and the other types of carriage horses it is im- 



