HORSEMANSHIP AND TRAINING. 23 



We may make his mouth and teach him to do many 

 things, so that we can use his natural, mental and physical 

 (qualifications in teaching him accomplishments, and to 

 look upon his rider as his friend and companion ; but, 

 while these are natural under proper treatment in this 

 peculiar service, he was a saddle-horse before he was 

 foaled. If -not, he never could be made one, although he 

 could be used and tortured as a riding horse ; but he 

 don't '^ fill the bill." 



In dwelling on the term saddle-horse we do so to im- 

 press the reader with the idea that he is a peculiar speci- 

 men of the species. He is the embodiment of all that is 

 great and grand in the equine nature — in his breeding, 

 shape, figure, symmetry, quality, muscle, bone, dura- 

 bility, mettle, endurance, temper, disposition, instincts, 

 style, action, intellect and pluck, all of which require lo 

 be of the first order, for he has many things to learn in 

 the space of some five years, when he must be able to 

 master his profession before he gets too stiff to please, 

 and to take things as they come. Yet, with all the above 

 qualities, he may be unsound and not worth a rap. But 

 if he possess all the qualities we seek, and it is intended 

 we shall require in him, no wonder he is associated with 

 angels and chariots in heaven, as represented in many 

 parts of the Bible, and especially in Eevelations. His 

 work is so varied, and at times so complicated, that, fail- 

 ing in respect to one qualification, he would be sure to 

 fail in some performance at, perhaps, a critical moment 

 when life or death, loss or gain, depended on his per- 

 fection in one point and performance therewith. "When 

 we occasionally see a born saddle-horse, or the material 

 for one, we folio \\^ him with a covetous eye, and wonder 

 if he ever went to school and if his owner knows what he 

 has got. 



But, apart from a day with the fox or stag hounds, the 

 saddle-horse, for mere pleasure in the less arduous duties 



