i8o Reminiscences of a 



was held up until assistance arrived in the way of ropes, 

 when we put one round his neck and dragged him right up 

 the steep bank— about fourteen or fifteen men joining in the 

 pull ; this is far the best way to get a horse out of any 

 such difficulty, as it leaves the legs free ; though some 

 people always want to draw horses by means of their body 

 or legs, and I saw this occur only a few days ago, when a 

 horse was being moved. The brown horse was none the 

 worse for his ducking, and lived, 1 understand, to carry his 

 owner thirteen seasons more. But, perhaps, a still more 

 remarkable animal was Mrs Ord's " Sweetsound," by " Young 

 Trumpeter." Another instance of a horse living to a great 

 age and doing a tremendous lot of work, that I call to 

 mind, was old " Castiron," a well named horse in his youth, 

 that was aged when Mr. Ord bought him at Mr. Coupland's 

 sale at Leicester in 1882. He was bought for Claxon to 

 ride, and had a deformity in one eye, but he did a lot of 

 hunting, and was given to Mr. Wiseman Robson of Stoney 

 Flat, a sporting farmer who used to come out and ride 

 hard very often with a large bottle of whiskey in one 

 pocket. He rode the horse until he was twenty-five years 

 old, and then turned his attention to harness work for a 

 year or two; I don't know what his end was, but I heard 

 of him being alive about four years ago when he must have 

 been close on thirty. 



Although Mr. Whitwell was so heavy he always carried 

 a spare horseshoe with him in a leather case with a joint 

 in it, so that it might be made to fit any horse on a pinch. 

 I used to carry a spare shoe and fuse case to bolt foxes 

 in the Vale of White Horse country, but it is very dan- 

 gerous to carry a stirrup leather round your shoulders as 

 some do; I nearly had a bad accident in the big ditch 

 country of Vale of White Horse. The horse came back 



