38 THE HORSE. 



fifteen hands and no mare less than 

 thirteen hands should run wild in the 

 country. A colt two years old and 

 under eleven hands and a half high was 

 not permitted to run on any moor, forest, 

 or common where mares were pastured, 

 and at Michaelmastide the neighbour- 

 Orders to ing magistrates were ordered to drive all 



slaughter 



small horses forests and commons and not onlv to 



and "unlikely 



tlts> " destroy such stallions but also "all Tin- 



likely tits, whether mares or foals." It 

 was further ordered that all prelates and 

 nobles, and all those u whose wives wore 

 velvet bonnets, should leap and ride 

 upon stallions not less than fifteen hands 

 high, and in Edward VI. 's reign a law 

 was passed prohibiting the importation 

 of stallions below fourteen hands and 

 mares below thirteen hands high. 



