6 



bought and taken into an ordinary stable, where all 

 the horses not being thorough-bred advance a year 

 when the 1st of May appears ; and when that day 

 dawns, the blood colt, not eighteen months of age, 

 rising with the rest, is called three years off. Now 

 in such a case, the man who judged by the teeth 

 would be certain to be wrong ; and if it is possible 

 under any circumstances for truth to be discredited, 

 we may imagine that many apparent mistakes 

 would, on inquiry, be cleared up. The age of a 

 horse is seldom correctly stated even in a court of 

 law. Witnesses swear by the customs of men, and 

 it never seems to occur to them that Nature has not 

 yet given in her adherence to the codes by which 

 their consciences are narcotized. Horses are born at 

 all times and seasons. The regular breeder, it is true, 

 takes care towards the observance of the regulations ; 

 but all who may think proper to have " a foal out of 

 the old mare when she's done up for work," are by no 

 means nice in that particular. Stallions are paraded 

 for '' service " in the autumn, and there are to be 

 found men who will argue stoutly in favour of a 

 " late get." 



