THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 13 



Ten years after he was withdrawn from the turf; 

 O'Kelly was asked at what price he would sell him. 

 At first he peremptorily refused to accept any price ; 

 but after some reflection, he said he would take 

 25,000, with an annuity of 500, besides certain 

 privileges. The seeming extravagance of this sum 

 excited considerable remark, but O'Kelly declared 

 he had already cleared more than 25,000 by Eclipse, 

 and that the animal was still young enough to earn 

 double that sum. 



From what we have said above, it appears that 

 there are various standards of perfection for the horse's 

 form, and that there must be a certain vagueness in 

 any general description which shall include them all. 

 It is not a little remarkable that we are indebted to 

 Terentius Varro, who wrote about the year 70 B.C., 

 for a description of the horse which, in the opinion of 

 so excellent a judge as Mr. Youatt, has scarcely been 

 surpassed in modern times : "We may prognosticate 

 great things of a colt," he says, " if, when running in 

 the pastures, he is ambitious to get before his com- 

 panions, and if, on coming to a river, he strives to be 

 the first to plunge into it. His head should be small, 

 his limbs clean and compact, his eyes bright and 

 sparkling, his nostrils open and large, his ears placed 

 near each other, his mane strong and full, his chest 



B 



