66 FREE GOEKS. 



apt, when this is attempted, to yield his head to save 

 his mouth, and then no assistance can be given. I 

 grant light-mouthed horses are pleasant to ride ; but 

 heavy weights must look to everything that assists 

 in carrying them, and not what is most showy or 

 most pleasant. Again, pulling horses are generally 

 animated, resolute ones : of course I do not mean a 

 mere boring beast that leans on the hand from want 

 of spirit to hold his great jolter head up himself. 

 Boring and pulling widely differ in cause and effect. 

 If a horse pulls, it is from animation of some sort ; 

 it may be from emulation or vice : but from whichever 

 it proceeds, the animation is kept up, and that carries 

 horse or man a long way even in difficulty. Why do 

 we give a beaten man a glass of brandy ? it cannot 

 take the fatigue from his legs ; but it gives a tem- 

 porary fillip to sinking animation, and gives him spirit 

 to bear the fatigue he is suffering : so, while the 

 animation lasts in the horse, he bears fatigue also 

 so long as his powers last ; and I fear many riders 

 think but little of the one so long as they can call 

 upon the other. Even as a very moderate, I might 

 say light, weight, I always preferred horses inclined 

 to pull. I like horses to go very free at their fences ; 

 I do not mean to rush wildly at them ; but I like a 

 horse, that, if I once put him straight at a fence, 

 which shows him I mean to take it, would give me 

 some trouble in afterwards altering rny mind ; in 

 short, I would rather he should go at it like a steam 

 engine than be a hesitating devil. I hate a nervous 

 timid horse as racer, hunter, harness horse, or 

 anything else. It is true the whip and spurs may 

 make such a horse face his fence ; but then, it i from 

 timidity; it almost amounts to cruelty to constantly 



