4 HORSES 



unnecessary to set them down here, but it is as 

 well to impress them on your memory, as we are 

 all rather inclined to fly before we can walk. 



If your parents can afford to keep horses, they can 

 probably also afford to pay men to look after them, 

 and therefore the whole of your holidays need not 

 be spent in the stable. You can, however, get a 

 rudimentary idea of the way things should be done 

 if you ask your father's head man to give you a 

 little instruction — how to groom a pony, how to 

 put a saddle and bridle on, &c., for there is a knack 

 in performing these operations. If you are born to 

 wealth, you may not be obliged to saddle a horse 

 more than two or three times in your life, but, when 

 the occasion does come, you would like to be able 

 to do it properly. Knowledge of all kinds is 

 always worth acquiring, and you can never tell 

 when it will be useful. Take the head of the 

 bridle in the right hand, the bit in the palm of 

 the left, then slip your thumb in the corner of the 

 horse's mouth, when you will find he will open it, 

 and the thing is done. 



When you take your pony out yourself, you 

 should make a practice of trying all four feet to 

 see if any shoes are loose, and if there are any 

 clinches up that he might possibly cut himself with. 

 The clinches are the ends of the nails that have 

 been hammered down, but which work up as the 

 shoe wears thin. 



The boy who is fortunate enough to live in the 

 country should not aspire to a stabled pony until 



