OAME TO THK LAST. 25 



Thoronglibred is obtainecl, without getting too sniiill Cor the 

 hunting field, the cavalry, the carriage, or the traveller's horse. 



4;""), — The fine strong, bony, but low-bred animals that 

 could look or hop over any fence in cold blood, and carry any 

 weight on parade, are no longer used by experienced ambitious 

 hunters. They have found that it is not bone and muscle, but 

 heart and lungs that must carry them through a long burst, and 

 that even an Arab pony, whose heart and lungs can keep up 

 with his little legs at any pace, is a safer animal to ride over a 

 fence at the end of half an hour's gallop, than the biggest horse 

 whose nerves and muscles can no longer act for want of oxygen. 



The coach or carriage driver has found the same. The fine 

 Cleveland bays that pranced so nobly and started the coach so 

 easily are staggering and trembling with heaving flanks when 

 the cruel stage is half over, whilst the little Thoroughbreds are 

 ready to run away at the end of it. 



4G. — On the battle field, in pursuit or retreat, through the 

 cold wild wastes of Canada, or over the snows of the Eocky 

 Mountains, in the waterless deserts of Australia, or through the 

 floods and over the mountains of New Zealand, the Thoroughbred 

 carries his rider as no other animal can do, enduring hunger, 

 cold, heat, or thirst, despising fatigue and pain, getting lighter and 

 weaker every day, but still responding to every call, and often 

 saving the life of an ungrateful and exacting rider at the expense 

 of his own. 



PONIES. 



47. — The term everywhere means a small horse, but the limit 

 varies in every locality, so that pony may mean a horse under 

 eleven, or under fifteen hands high. The old fashioned, hardy, 

 bad shouldered ponies of the New Forest, Exmoor, or Wales, 

 have all been crossed witli small Thoroughbreds, until any 

 distinctive character about them is lost. Thev are all active 

 enduring animals, capable of carrying light weights to a great 

 distance, but they are no longer fit to take the place of donkeys, 

 or to carry without bridles panniers loaded with children. 



48. — The bhetland pony alone retains its character. The 



