188 THE PARAGON 



What is this paragon that you call a saddle-horse ? you 

 ask me. Let me tell you, but without enlarging upon his 

 " points," which we all of us know and appreciate alike. 

 If he moves quickly, smoothly, and true at all his gaits, he 

 is all right; motion is the test. I have seen horses with 

 " points" enough on the stable floor to make you fall down 

 and worship them, that weren't worth a shilling a dozen 

 when you got them out on the road. " The perfect 

 hack," says my good friend the editor of the Sporting 

 and Dramatic -and I love to quote a thorough horseman 

 "must have a variety of excellences, such as are very 

 rarely indeed found in one horse." He " bends readily 

 and obediently to the rider's hand, though his neck has 

 never undergone the process of suppling." True, indeed, 

 but how often do you find this rare bird, whose price in the 

 Old Country appears to be about two hundred guineas? 

 Or how many of us can afford to buy him when found ? 

 It is just here that the school comes in and enables you to 

 buy for a quarter of that sum an average young four or 

 five year old, and in six months of pleasure, for training 

 is one of the greatest of pleasures, make him the perfect 

 hack. And the veriest Philistine, presupposing intelli- 

 gence, can begin with a green horse and, if he is half as 

 apt at studying his manual as his nag is clever at catch- 

 ing the trick of it, can educate his purchase and himself 

 at the same time. 



While the price of choice horses in the big marts of 

 Kentucky such as Lexington, Mount Sterling, or Paris 

 is to-day very high, you can still buy in the country for 

 from two hundred dollars upwards a well- sired com- 

 bined colt, who has been taught to " walk," or rack, canter, 

 and trot, and of course to guide by the neck. I recently 

 rode a beautiful three -year- old in Bath County, who was 

 fifteen three, as well rounded up as most five-year-olds, 



