PUTTING THE SADDLE ON THE RIGHT HORSE. 163 



Now I strongly .suspect that, let any lady turn 

 to her accounts for all I have mentioned, she will 

 find her pair of carriage-horses have cost her a 

 little more than this, unless she limited them very 

 much in every allowance ; in which case I infer 

 they cost her quite as much, and were not in first- 

 rate condition either. 



Veterinary surgeons' bills are items no one can 

 give an estimate of, depending, of course, on the 

 good or bad luck people have with, or rather on the 

 management of, their horses. For I am no little 

 sceptical on the matter of luck; at least I can 

 only say when things have occurred to me that 

 many persons might attribute in their case to bad 

 luck, I always, or, at least, mostly, could, in some 

 particular or other, trace them to some blundering 

 act of stupidity or culpable inattention of my 

 own. 



However, as in other persons' cases we will 

 call it bad luck, whenever it comes in the shape 

 of a horse falling lame or amiss, go yourself with 

 him ; or, if in a lady's case, send some friend with 

 him to the best class of veterinary surgeons : it 

 will be the least expense in the end. If you 

 allow your man to take him where he likes, he is 

 sure to have some friend, a common farrier, who 

 will be sure to make the horse worse ; probably 

 in some way blemish him without there being any 

 occasion for it, and do it clumsily if there is, be- 



M 2 



