CHARACTER. 13 



The Ayrshire possesses something of the spirit 

 of the English thoroughbred horse. With good 

 treatment, he shows a docile intelligence, ready to 

 perform for you all sorts of kindly offices. No horse 

 can you place such dependence on, none so safe, 

 when well trained, as the thoroughbred ; but there is 

 fire enough, enough of nature in him, to outrun a 

 thousand of the cold-blooded kind, and instincts, too, 

 that show that domestication has but regulated and 

 not demeaned him. 



With all the high breeding the Ayrshire shows, 

 she is yet near to nature. Breeding, as in the Short- 

 horn, has not made a dull thing of the cow and a 

 harmless thing of the bull. Did you ever see a rab- 

 bit in the forest, erect and listening, who has not yet 

 seen your person but has heard your step? There 

 are instincts and nerves here : enough to supply a 

 herd of Short-horns. 



The Ayrshire has a superabundance of nerves. 

 She is ready to employ them upon demand, in self- 

 defence or in self-support ; she asks little beyond a 

 fair chance : yet all this nature in her is in reserve, 

 and she does not use it wantonly to disqualify her to 

 be the pet of the household. She can the more 

 aptly accommodate herself to circumstances and 

 make them friendly to her. 



This wealth of instincts, all alive upon occasion, 

 adapts her to be appreciative of good treatment, and 

 appeals to intelligence to accord it to her. 



"If to her share some trifling errors fall, 

 Look in her face and you '11 forget them all." 



