132 RHINOCKROSSES BAD HACKS. 



five-and-thirty stone, or some such weight as is never 

 expected to be seen on a horse ; but this I am quite 

 sure of, with any horse-weight, if one cob was even 

 stronger standing still, he would not be so when going, 

 and we conclude a man does intend something like 

 progression when he gets on a horse. A man may 

 say he merely wants something to carry him for a 

 short airing in the Park : if so, he has the less occasion 

 for all the strength he fancies he should get in one of 

 those blubber- and- oil packages. If a man merely rides 

 for health or recreation, I conclude he wishes to be 

 carried pleasantly ; if he does, I should not consider 

 a small rhinoceros as likely to carry one very lightly 

 and pleasantly during July and August ; and really 

 I have ridden some cobs once, but never twice, whose 

 mouth, activity, and light-heartedness I should con- 

 sider much about the same. Heavy men may on 

 the other hand say that they sometimes want to 

 go far and fast, to do which they must have strength 

 under them : granted ; but they must have breeding 

 too, and action, or fast and far must be estimated by 

 a very -moderate scale indeed. 



I have owned many horses that some persons might 

 call cobs : so they were as to height and substance, but 

 there the relationship ceased : they were dwarfs, and 

 very deceitful little gentlemen they were. I had one 

 under 14 hands that I once matched against a very 

 fair thoroughbred horse, half a mile, 13st. each. Had 

 I been a betting man, I could have got any odds on 

 the race. Many laid them, but Cobby made them pay 

 for their opinion. His speed was very extraordinary 

 indeed ; not but that I am quite aware that at 8st. 

 each he would have been beaten easy ; but I bought 

 him of a farmer, who I had often seen ride him 



