THE LADY'S HORSE. 



Look, around his straining throat 



Grace and shifting beauty float ! 



Sinewy strength is in his reins, 



And the red blood gallops through his veins." 



How often do we hear it remarked of a neat blood* 

 looking nag, '' Yes, very pretty and blood-like, but there's 

 nothing of him; only fit to carry a woman." No greater 

 mistake can be made, for if we consider the matter in all 

 its bearings, we shall see that the lady should be rather 

 over than under mounted. 



The average weight of English ladies is said to be nine 

 stone ; to that must be added another stone for saddle and 

 bridle (I don't know if the habit and other habiliments 

 be included in the nine stone), and we must give them 

 another stone in hand ; or eleven stone in all. A blood, or 

 at furthest, two crosses of blood on a good foundation, horse 

 will carry this weight as well as it can be carried. It is 

 a fault among thoroughbreds that they do not bend the 

 knee sufficiently ; but there are exceptions to this rule. I 

 know of two Stud Book sires, by Lowlander, that can trot 

 against the highest stepping hackney or roadster- in the 

 kingdom, and, if trained, could put the dust in the eyes 

 of nine out of ten of the much-vaunted standard American 

 trotters. Their bold, elegant, and elastic paces come up to 

 the ideal poetry of action, carrying themselves majestically, 

 all their movements like clockwork, for truth and regularity. 

 The award of a first prize as a hunter sire to one of these 

 horses establishes his claim to symmetry, but, being full 

 sixteen hands and built on weight-carrying lines, he is just 

 one or two inches too tall for carrying any eguestriejuie 

 short of a daughter of Anak. 



Though too often faulty in formation of shoulders, 

 thoroughbreds, as their name implies, are generally full of 



