IMPROVED HORSES. 183 



passer by, and could only expect that mercy by having a team so 

 completely under command of his voice that no one could complain 

 of his driving-. Though it is painful to think of those weary 

 footed, overworked, and care worn men, who could only earn the 

 price of a bushel of wheat by working seven days from five in the 

 morning until seven at night, it was a pretty sight to see those 

 patient drivers and well cared for horses steering to an inch to 

 miss stumps, clumps, stones and holes without the use of a rein, 



406. — We do not mean to say that the draft horse has not 

 been improved during the present century. He is as much 

 improved as the Shorthorn, the Leicester, or the Southdown, but 

 it is the breeding, not his education, that has improved, and that 

 improvement has been physical, and not mental. He is less 

 lymphatic, and more fibrous ; more active and more enduring ; 

 has better wind and better limbs ; but he is treated less as a • 

 companion and more as a machine, and is dragged about with 

 the reins instead of being directed by the voice. The much 

 heavier loads that he draws over much better roads, calls for 

 perhaps more continuous, but certainly far less discriminating 

 exertion. Though it is common to hear much of the intelli- 

 gence of the Arab, and to speak of an uneducated man as being 

 " as ignorant as a waggon horse," the waggon horse of Great 

 Britain has commonly acquired far more education, and has 

 brought more intelligence to bear on his work than our fast 

 horses usually do, though that is only the natural consequence of 

 his being often the almost constant companion of one driver, and 

 of being usually allowed to live long enough to become intelligently 

 familiar with his work. 



407. — But whatever may be the relative amount of intelli- 

 gence in the cart horse, it is certain that he has been long bred 

 with an eye to the work that is required of him, and that he takes 

 to that work as kindly and as naturally as a well bred sheep dog 

 takes to his, with wonderfully little attention and less trouble in 

 the way of education. To begin with, he is usually introduced 

 to the stable, the mangei', the harness, the plough and harrows, 

 the cart, and the highway with its engines, roads, bridges, and 

 other sights and sounds, whilst running by its mother's side. 



