192 UNASKED ADVICE. 



rule, mucli better, as well as better-looking, animals than 

 tlie price paid for tliem would warrant one in expecting ; 

 but they are bought as babies — four years old, or occa- 

 sionally a few months short of that age. Then they are 

 kept on good, hard meat, and in the stahUj and the 

 regimental V.S. takes care that they have no very im- 

 portant unsoundness or weak point to start with. Thus 

 they are found to improve. But whether they have 

 constitutions for campaigning is another thing altogether. 

 The parents of the trooper are, we will say, a thorough- 

 bred horse and hunting mare, which is well enough, but 

 which is still a pedigree that, for soldiering purposes, 

 might be improved upon. Newspaper correspondents 

 from the seat of the late war have stated that such 

 horses as have Arab blood in their veins stand the 

 campaign better than others. I should be much sur- 

 prised, knowing what I do of Arabs, were this not the 

 case. But, apro'pos of this statement, a letter has ap- 

 peared in an influential journal, written by Mr. Edmund 

 Tattersall, who, while he calls attention to the necessity 

 of high breeding in the troop horse, recommends the 

 employment of English thoroughbreds in the ranks. 

 Granting that the Arab is the best of chargers, he quotes 

 Admiral Rous, to the effect that the English thoroughbred 

 is an " Arab improved '' — improved for the purposes of 

 racing on the flat doubtless, but how otherwise. Not in 

 power, not in endurance, not in soundness, not inwear-and- 

 tear qualities as a war horse. I have not the presumption 

 to set up my opinion as regards racehorses or thorough- 

 bred stock generally, against such authorities as the 

 Admiral and Mr. Tattersall; but, as my experience of 

 troop horses in the field is at least equal to theirs, on that 

 subject I will state my convictions, which are simply that 



