HACK AND HARNESS HORSE 63 



the proverbial ' knot on a tree/ I have ridden 

 her sixty or seventy miles in a day and she always 

 came home with her head and tail up. I mention 

 her to point the moral of the scarcity of her like. 

 I got her rather cheaply, for she was a bad colour 

 and rather small for the ' Fashion ' of the day. 

 Some twenty years later I met the gentleman 

 from whom I had bought her. It so happened 

 a friend wanted something of the sort and I asked 

 if he had anything like the mare I had bought 

 of him. The reply was in the negative. I asked 

 if he could find one. He said '' Perhaps but not 

 at the price." I told him price was practically 

 no object, that I could give anything in reason, 

 and he said he would look out. When I met him 

 again he said he had been at considerable trouble 

 but could find nothing ! 



During these last few years there has been an 

 attempt made to get back to a riding-horse on 

 somewhat similar lines to those I have indicated, 

 and not altogether without success. I have 

 seen one or two very smart riding cobs of about 

 14 hands 3 inches during my travels and the fact 

 that there is an attempt being made to breed on 

 these lines speaks favourably for the future of the 

 horse in England. 



I should not advise a man who wants a hack 

 to buy one of the Hackney breed. He will find 

 a horse with high knee action that as a natural 

 consequence does not use his shoulders too well 

 and scarcely gets his hocks far enough under him 

 anything but a pleasant ride, and I take it that 



