38 THE BARB AND THE BRIDLE, 



CHAPTER VI. 



The frontispiece represents the stamp of horse best calculated to 

 carry a lady, and is a very truthful likeness of a five-year-old horse, 

 named Prince Arthur, a son of the celebrated racehorse Stockwell, 

 his dam a half-bred Arab mare. 



The subject of the plate, therefore, has some of the very best 

 Enghsh blood in his veins, in conjunction with that Eastern strain 

 from which in all probability our magnificent British thoroughbreds 

 derive a considerable proportion of their power of endurance, or, in 

 turf phraseology, their staying quality. 



The horse is a first-class hack, as good a performer over the 

 great Leicestershire pastures and formidable oxers which so often 

 bar the way in that sporting county, as he has already proved 

 himself in the manege ; and, as he possesses, in addition to true and 

 most elastic action, fine temper and indomitable courage, I venture 

 to present his likeness as my type of the sort of animal adapted 

 either for Rotten-row or to hold his own in the " first flight " over 

 a country. 



A common error is that any weedy thoroughbred, too slow for 

 racing, and without the "timber" and substance to enable him to 

 carry a 10-stone man to hounds, is good enough for a lady's riding. 

 There can be no greater mistake. While quality and fashion are 

 indispensable in a woman's horse, strength and substance are equally 

 necessary. As I have before observed, the very conditions upon 

 which the comfort and safety of a lady's riding depend, leave her 

 horse without that support in his action which he would derive from 

 the riding of a good man; while, however true the balance of the 

 lady may be, still the horse's powers are called upon in a long ride, 

 either on the flat or over the country, in a way which tests him 



