THE HORSE IN WAR AND PEACE 123 



goal is reached and the gasping sob of the machinery 

 steadies to rest, will fling his arm round the petrol motor, 

 as he would round the neck, of his horse, and feel that 

 between them they have done a great thing ! 



Even horse-racing, taken by itself without its apparently 

 inevitable sequence of bookmakers, welshers, robbers of the 

 master's till and absconding clerks, holds a high place as a 

 healthy amusement ; and even as a commercial speculation ! 

 La Fleche won close on jC35>oo<^ ^'^^ ^^^ lucky owner in 

 honourable stakes alone, and a racing sire stands equal to an 

 income of ^6,000 a year. 



But, after all, for real benefit to the nation at large one 

 must go back from riding, driving, hunting, racing — 

 though it is impossible to overrate the advantages of all 

 these — go back to the industrial work which has been 

 done, which is being done, every day by the horse. 



On a fine February morning how good it is to see the 

 mist of vapour rise from the ploughing team to join the 

 mist rising from the new-ploughed land. Nature is 

 labouring to bring forth bread. The steam of her sweating 

 is as an incense on the altar of life. As it steers its way so 

 steadily with the scuffler through the young mangolds and 

 turnips, treading neither to the right nor the left, needing 

 no bit or bridle, does the horse recognise its duty or the 

 seedling ? It will tread on weeds, but even at the turns 

 will save the crop if it can. There is something almost 

 eerie in the knowledge some farm horses acquire of 

 agriculture. They will measure their distances for the 

 putting down of manure, go on from cock to cock when 

 carting hay, and, if worked without blinkers, look round to 

 see what room they have for backing a cart into a barn. 



