198 THE HOBSE BOOK. 



could carry a soldier and his kit over the 

 ground at a fair rate of speed. Following the 

 ethical coach idea out to its logical conclusion it 

 seems strange that the only real coacher of the 

 lot should, after fair and full trial here, have 

 dropped from sight entirely and that in his 

 native land he should have become alm'ost a 

 memory — not quite, almost. On the other hand 

 the war horses of France and Germany have 

 thriven and multiplied apace with us, the whole 

 of which forms a somewhat strange commen- 

 tary on the peculiar mutability of equine af- 

 fairs. 



Instead of the old style heavy mail coach we 

 now have the heavier sorts of carriages, the 

 brougham, the landau and the like, and the 

 horse required for use in them we term 

 ^^coachy. '^ As the prevailing tendency on the 

 part of carriagemakers is to build these vehicles 

 lighter and lighter, the demand calls for small- 

 er horses than it formerly did. In the United 

 States carriages of all sorts are built on a light- 

 er plan than in any other country and the use 

 of rubber tires has aided not a little in this evo- 

 lution. Hence while the carriage horse or 

 coach horse of the commerce of today is con- 

 siderably larger than the park horse he is no 

 longer a giant. Sixteen hands is about his 

 limit and he must not be at all coarse. 



Quality is the first essential of the carriage 

 horse, which term I prefer to use for the com- 



