158 RIDING RECOLLECTIONS. 



your horse's capabilities, and you vow next season to 

 have nothing but Irish nags in your stable, resolving 

 for the future to ride straighter than you have ever 

 done before. 



But if you are so well pleased now with your promis- 

 ing Patlander, what shall you think of him this time 

 next year, when he has had twelve months of your 

 stud-groom's stable-management, and consumed ten or 

 a dozen quarters of good English oats? Though you 

 may have bought him as a six-year old, he will have* 

 grown in size and substance, even in height, and will 

 not only look, but feel up to a stone more weight than 

 you ever gave him credit for. He can jump when he is 

 blown now, but he will never be blown then. Condition 

 will teach him to laugh at the deep ground, while his 

 fine shoulders and true shape will enable him, after the 

 necessary practice, to travel across ridge and furrow 

 without a lurch. He will have turned out a rattling 

 good horse, and you will never grudge the cheque you 

 wrote, nor the punch you were obliged to drink, before 

 his late proprietor would let you make him your own. 



Gold and whisky, in large quantities and judiciously 

 applied, may no doubt buy the best horses in Ireland. 

 But a man must know where to look for them, and even 

 in remote districts, will sometimes be disappointed to 



