188 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



of thoroughbred blood, and hardly that, could supply 

 the requisite wind and limb. 



One of the best of those colored plates that illus- 

 trate the road in coaching days shows both what kind 

 of horse was used, and what was the effect upon him 

 of the work. It is a picture of " The Xight Team " 

 putting to in the frosty moonlight at a roadside inn, 

 while a few passengers, muffled to the eyes, shiver 

 on top of the stage. Three of the four horses, the 

 wheelers and the off leader, are bays, — broken down, 

 but still powerful. The ribs clearly show through 

 their short, nicely groomed coats ; their fine, well-bred 

 heads, topped by small, aristocratic ears, hang mourn- 

 fully down ; their knees are fearfully sprung ; their 

 hind legs are twisted and swollen. Altogether, they 

 give the impression of having accomplished some 

 tremendous feats, and of being still able to perform 

 the like when well warmed to their work. The 

 fourth horse, the nigh leader, is a gray, young and 

 sound, but vicious. He wears a broad bandage over 

 his eyes, to prevent shying at "objects," and two or 

 three hostlers are struggling to get him within the 

 traces, while he plunges about with head and tail 

 high in the air. The fast mail coaches broke down 

 many good horses before their time ; and if anybody 

 had upon his hands an unmanageable brute, such as 

 the English system of breaking was eminently fitted 

 to produce, he doubtless put him into one of those 

 horse-taming and horse-killing machines. 



During the past fifty years many of the best Cleve- 

 land bays have been exported, — so many that the 

 deficiency in the London market has been supplied in 

 part by carriage horses brought over from Germany. 



