194 UNASKED ADVICE. 



dible speed for half a mile_, but whose accomplisliinents 

 end there. 



A winter at the picket post is about as great a trial of 

 constitution in a horse as well as can be, and to say that 

 our thoroughbreds are the animals best calculated to pass 

 through that ordeal with credit is absurd. Now the 

 beauty of the Arab is that he stands cold almost as well 

 as heat, besides retaining his condition on forage of 

 limited amount, and possibly indifferent quality. The 

 Hungarian horses are, many of them, model troopers ; 

 they have a strong infusion of Arab, added to the best 

 English blood. My high opinion of the Arab does not, I 

 trust, lead me into a state of unreasonable admiration. 

 Although I consider him the best of war horses, he is not 

 the animal I should for choice bestride at Nobottle "Wood 

 or Ranksboro^ Gorse. At the same time, I have ex- 

 pressed my conviction that our breed of hunters would be 

 all the better of an occasional return to the primitive 

 stock ; and the troop horses still more so, for a hunter 

 lives like a prince when he is not absolutely at work. 

 We are not surprised when we hear all manner of evils 

 from a cough, upwards and downwards (for I for one do 

 not think lightly of a cough), attributed to change of 

 stable. Why the troop horse on service, if he be in a 

 stable at all, is probably in a different one every day. 

 For my own part, I think that it would be aU the better 

 if troop horses in summer lived in the open — at least in 

 open sheds. Canvas stables were, if I am not mistaken, 

 found to be unsatisfactory when tried at Aldershot — pro- 

 bably on account of indifferent ventilation. As long as 

 fine weather lasts, the dragoon himself is mostly in better 

 health in camp than in quarters ; and there is no reason 

 to suppose that the same rule does not apply to his horse. 



