54 NATURAL PACE TO BE ALTERED. 



riding exercise lad for the same period, he will in 

 either case contract a manner of going quite different 

 from his natural one. And what he would become by 

 the two distinct modes of treatment would render 

 him so widely different in his way of going as scarcely 

 to allow us to believe an animal could be so meta- 

 morphosed. A racing suckling certainly in a general 

 way has a different natural style of going from colts 

 less highly bred ; but the difference is by no means 

 so great between the two as it afterwards becomes by 

 different education. The riding-school or Newmarket 

 Heath would make him either fit to carry the Marquis 

 of Anglesey at the head of the 7th, or Robinson over 

 the Flat. So will the horse that has not contracted 

 any peculiar style of going easily contract that w r hich 

 will best enable him to carry weight ; to do which he 

 must in fact contract himself ; that is, his manner of 

 going. This he will readily do, as he has no acquired 

 habits to undo. Now the horse that has carried a 

 light weight for a season or two has to a certain extent 

 learned to do what the colt sent to Newmarket would 

 do ; that is, to extend himself the very thing that 

 would militate against, nay, prevent his carrying 

 weight. This therefore he would have to undo ; and 

 this would of course take time to effect. Good hands 

 will certainly shortly teach a horse to go within him- 

 self ; but weight will teach it him sooner. In short, 

 he can scarcely extend himself: if he does, he tires ; 

 he soon finds this out, and his sense or instinct makes 

 him alter his gait as soon as his former habits will 

 allow him to do so. The next best thing to getting 

 a horse accustomed to carry weight is to get one that 

 has not been rendered unfit for it by carrying a light 

 one. 



