128 HOUSE POETEAITURE. 



fully groomed from the time they were old enough to bear 

 this attention. Whilst I could not withhold the expression 

 of my astonishment at the extraordinary size of the colts 

 and fillies, there was but one in this number that elicited 

 anything like surprise from any Englishman present, and 

 this was a brown yearling called Artful Dodger, whose 

 pedigree I have forgotten. But for this I should have 

 supposed the largest and choicest colts had been selected 

 from each stud for sale." The record of imported horses 

 that have been reared in a manner to gain a year in size 

 at two years old, will show that their lives have been pro- 

 longed beyond the usual term of horse life. Leviathan, 

 Priam, Trustee, Eoman, Sovereign, Glencoe, &c., &c., are 

 proofs of the truth of this statement. 



I may be wrong, thinking that part-bred horses are not 

 able to keep up great trotting speed for even a mile ; or 

 rather that when the trot becomes almost as speedy as 

 the run, none but the purest will be likely to do it 

 without great fatigue. I have seen a horse that could trot 

 a quarter of a mile in 31 seconds, the half-mile in 

 L: 05, but could not trot the heat in 2:35, to save his 

 worthless life. Now a blood horse that could go the first 

 quarter in 31 seconds would trot the mile in 2 : 05, as far 

 as tiring is concerned. He might be unsteady and frac- 

 tious, but if such a horse as the one mentioned, if he did 

 not break in his last quarter, would be as good or better 

 than in the first. 



PEECEPTOE. I will certainly not argue that colts, if al- 

 lowed room to exercise, can be fed too much grain, as I 

 am satisfied the best horses, and those likely to live the 

 longest, are reared in this way. As to the withdrawal of 

 them from the turf when four or five years old, the 

 reasons are patent to any one at all acquainted with 

 racing. Inability to carry the scale of weights, as now 

 regulated, is one of the most fruitful sources. Those that 



