426 ASHGILL; OR, THE LIFE 



short-legged one, after the stamp of Apology; 

 I don't know of anything that I like better than 

 her shape and make. You want something like 

 that under you to carry you home; she had 

 plenty of neck. Lily Agnes was a bit weak in 

 the neck; she was quite a different stamp 

 to Apology; but both were good animals. 

 Apology had a better back, but she did not 

 grow into so beautiful a brood mare as 'Lily/ 

 I like the withers well into the back, short and 

 strong. You may get some with low withers 

 that will go like the wind. Manganese was low 

 in the withers; she had terrific speed. Mind 

 you, I think she would have stayed as well if you 

 could have settled her down; she used to beat 

 herself with pulling. If you got her steadied 

 down into a nice pace she would have stayed 

 there. 



" It's not the miles we travel, 

 It's the pace that kills." 



" I am a great believer in plenty of shoulder 



action. A horse with straight action in front 



seldom gets through heavy ground. What you 



want is the long, low, sweeping action." 



The old cry of the deterioration of the English 



thoroughbred, as compared with Arabians, French, and 



American horses, is as often heard in the present as 



it was years ago. In one of his viva voce opinions, John 



Osborne asserts that horses in his younger days were 



certainly stouter and harder in constitution than the 



present. Our French neighbours avenged Waterloo 



with Gladiateur, who proved a splendid failure at the 



stud. The triumphs of the invaders, whether from old 



Gaul, America, Australia, or even Hungary, which sent 



