THE ROAD. 
horses for every ten miles' stage we engage to cover. 
In this case, eight horses only will be at work, four up 
and four down. If the stage be less than eight miles, 
nine horses may do the work ; but no horse in a fast 
coach can continue to run every day, the excitement of 
high keep and profuse sweating producing disease. In 
practice, perhaps, no animal toiling for man, solely for 
his profit, leads so easy and so comfortable a life as the 
English coach-horse. He is sumptuously fed, kindly 
treated ; and, if he do suffer a little in his work, he has 
twenty-three hours in the twenty-four of luxurious ease. 
He is now almost a stranger to the lash, nor do we ever 
see him with a broken skin ; but we often see him kick 
up his heels when taken from his coach, after having 
performed his stage of ten miles in five minutes under 
the hour. So much for condition. 
No horse lives so high as a coach-horse. In the 
language of the stable, his stomach is the measure of his 
corn ; he is fed ad libitum. The effect of this is visible 
in two ways : first, it is surprising to see how soon 
horses gather flesh in this severe work ; for there is 
none, as far as muscular exertion goes, more severe 
whilst it lasts : and, secondly, proprietors find that good 
flesh is no obstacle to their speed, but, on the contrary, 
operates to their advantage. Horses draw by their 
weight, and not by the force of their muscles, which 
merely assist the application of that weight : the heavier a 
horse is, then, the more powerful is he in his harness ; in 
short, it is the weight of the animal which produces the 
