THE HACKJfEY.] 



THE HOESE, AND 



[the hackney. 



kept some good horses. He liad a famous 

 mare that carried him from Birmingliam to 

 Nottingham and back within the twelve liours. 

 This was no mean performance, the distance 

 there and back being close upon a hundred 

 miles. The butcher spoke of it as not being 

 much of an effort. He said the general pace 

 of his horse was eleven miles an hour, and on 

 going down hill he sometimes dismounted, 

 which he considered to be very refreshing to 

 the mare, he being a heavy man. 



"When a hack, always known to ride quiet, 

 does not set off readily, or makes a stop on the 

 road, the rider may be assured that it arises 

 from some sudden painful bodily affection, or 

 something misplaced and galling in his fur- 

 niture. The rider should instantly dismount, 

 and examine both horse and tackle, at all 

 points. The animal may be suddenly griped, 

 or seized with a fit of stranguary, which will 

 appear from his dilated nostrils, sweating at 

 the ear-roots, staring coat, and attempts to 

 stale. Aged and worked hackneys are liable 

 to the stranguary ; in which case, all the rider 

 can do is to lead him about gently, and give 

 him time to void the dripping urine. 



Arrived at the inn, and the horse cool, no 

 extra care or solicitude is required ; he may be 

 led into the stable, stripped, rubbed over 

 whilst eating a lock of hay, and soon be ready 

 for his feed of corn. 



There is nothing more refreshing to a hard- 

 ridden animal, and for abating the excessive 

 and painful heat and tension in his joints and 

 sinews, than to have his feet and legs well 

 washed and bathed in warm water. It is a 

 good precaution used, if the inside of the saddle 

 be made dry and comfortable. If he should 

 not feed well, nor eat his corn with an appetite, 

 it is a hint that rest would be acceptable ; and 

 it should be complied with. 



It will be wise to keep the old adage in view, 

 "that a master's eye makes his horse fat;" 

 either himself or his groom should attend at 

 every feeding-time, to see that the horse has 

 justice done in his food, as to quality as well 

 as quantity. 



There are many highly interesting anecdotes 

 illustrative of the intelligence of the liackney. 



Seldom do we meet with so near an approach 

 towards mind in the brute creation, as was 

 evinced by a horse of Horncastle, Lincolnshire. 

 94 



A Mr. Treevor, of this place, was in posses- 

 sion of a horse, which was, at times, let loose in 

 a yard adjoiuing the stable, where stood a pump 

 and a water-trough. This horse was endowed 

 with an amount of sagacity rarely possessed 

 by the same species. He actually could pump 

 from the well the water he wished to drink. 

 As the pump was frequently used by many 

 persons in the course of a day, it was supposed 

 the docile animal had learned this extraordinary 

 art by noticing them. As the yard which 

 surrounded the pump was always open to 

 public inspection, many persons have seen 

 him elevating the handle with his nose, 

 and then pressing it down in the same way. 

 Such of our readers as may have experienced 

 the corroding bitterness of that sorrow which 

 the unkindness of prejudiced neighbours inflict, 

 will doubtless admire, as a pleasing trait in the 

 character of this noble animal, the amiable 

 instinct, the generous friendship which inclined 

 him to supply a fellow-companion, another 

 horse in the same yard, with a daily banquet 

 from the trough, into which he pumped for him 

 a sufficiency of water, even before he attempt^id 

 to satisfy himself. Such an instance of neigL . 

 hourly kindness is rarely exhibited, even anion, ' 

 mankind, far less among animals of a much 

 inferior race, and not possessed of even tb 

 highest quadrupedal instincts. 



Again, a horse having been turned into a 

 field by its owner, Mr. Joseph Lane, of Fas- 

 combe, in the parish of Ashelworth, was missed 

 the next morning, and the usual inquiries were 

 set afoot, as to what could have become of him. 

 He had, it seems, been shod a few days before; 

 and, as it frequently happens, got pinched in 

 one of his feet. Feeling, no doubt, a lively 

 sense of the necessity of being properly shod, 

 and desirous of relieving the cause of pain, he 

 contrived to unhang the gate, which opened 

 into liis p^isture, with his mouth, and make the 

 best of his way to the smithy — a distance of a 

 mile and a-half from Fascombe — where he 

 waited respectfully at the door, uutil the 

 bungling artist got up. The smith rehites, 

 on opening his shed, that he found him there; 

 that the horse advanced to the forge, and held 

 up his ailing foot; and that he himself, uf)on 

 examination, discovered the injury, took t<ff the 

 shoe, and replaced it more caretuUy, which 

 having done, the sagacious creature set off at 



