377 



ENGLISH AND IRISH HORSES COMPARED. 



THERE was a time when, if we had spoken to an 

 Irishman of the capabilities of an English horse as a 

 leaper, he would, if comparing with the Irish horse, 

 have held him in about the same estimation any 

 sportsman would one of those long-tailed blacks who 

 take us our last journey in this world ; and, in good 

 truth, some twenty or twenty-five years since, the 

 fencing qualifications of the ordinary run of our 

 hunters could bear no comparison with those of the 

 Irish hunter. That this did not arise from any want 

 of power in our horses is quite evident, as it is now 

 seen that they can cover quite as large fences as 

 their Irish neighbours ; and Liverpool, Leamington, 

 Cheltenham, Aylesbury, and many other Steeple races, 

 have quite rescued the English horse from the 

 disgrace of inferiority as to leaping qualifications. 



It has always been considered, that the Irish horse 

 could decidedly beat the English one at leaping 

 height : no one will attempt to deny that the gene- 

 rality of them can do so ; this merely proceeds from 

 their being more accustomed to such jumps, particu- 

 larly in their wall countries ; they must leap high 

 there, or they could not get along at all, consequently 

 they are from colts trained to this particular qualifi- 

 cation, and therefore excel in it. 



Now though the English horse is not seen taking a 

 six-foot wall, for the simple reason that we have no 

 six-feet walls that we want him to take, it is not to 



