GALLOWAYS AND PONIES. 



57 



in a constant state of irritation and fever, he rapidly loses his condition, 

 and sometimes comes up in August Httle better than a skeleton. 



Let the horse be turned out as soon as possible after the hunting season 

 is over. Let him have the whole of May, and the greater part, or possibly 

 the whole of June; but when the grass fails, and the ground gets hard, and 

 the flies torment, let him be taken up. All the benefits of turning out, and 

 that which a loose box and artificial physic can never give, will have been 

 obtained, without the inconvenience and injury which attend an injudi- 

 ciously protracted run at grass, and which, arguing against the use of a 

 thing from the abuse of it, have been improperly urged against turning 

 out at all. 



The Steeple Hunt is a relic of ancient foolhardiness and cruelty. It was 

 the form under which the horse race, at its first establishment, wasfrequently 

 decided. It is a race across the country, of two, or four, or even a greater 

 number of miles ; and it is generally contrived that there shall be some 

 deep lane, or wide brook, and many a stiff and dangerous fence between. 

 It is ridden at the evident hazard of the life of the sportsman ; and it 

 likewise puts to hazard the life or enjoyment of the horse. It is getting 

 into gradual disuse, and no man whose good opinion is worth having 

 would deem such an exhibition creditable to the head or heart of him who 

 was engaged in it. 



GALLOWAYS AND PONIES. 



A horse between thirteen and fourteen hands in height is called a Gal- 

 loway, from a beautiful breed of little horses once found in the south of 

 Scotland, on the shore of the Solway Firth, but now sadly degenerated, 

 and almost lost, from the attempts of the farmers to obtain a larger kind, 

 and better adapted for the purposes of agriculture. There is a tradition in 

 that country, that the breed is of Spanish extraction, some horses having 

 escaped from one of the vessels of the Grand Armada, which was wrecked 

 on the neighbouring coast. This district, however, so early as the time of 

 Edward I., supplied that monarch with a great number of horses. 



The pure galloway was said to be nearly fourteen hands high, and some- 



