8o DRIVING. 



fancy by studying from the old pictures the stamp of horse 

 that was used formerly, before the railways ran the coaches 

 clean off the roads. It is not at all disagreeable amusement 

 going about and trying to find horses of the same stamp that 

 were used in those days. Of course, the very short tails 

 which the coach-horses and posters had in those days very 

 much alter the appearance of the stamp of horse, and render 

 it more difficult to procure the exact variety that was formerly 

 used, because if they exist they are so changed. An inex- 

 perienced man cannot realise the extent to which a horse's 

 appearance can be altered by putting him on a long or a short 

 tail. It is only to the well-practised eye of a man very conver- 

 sant with horses that the exact shape and make can be detected 

 under the altered circumstances of a long or a short tail. 



The gentleman, having provided himself with the horses 

 that please him, has now got to put them into his stable. And 

 here we would impress upon him that hot stables are to be 

 avoided ; the cooler and better ventilated they are, and the 

 more the windows are kept open either by day or by night, 

 the healthier he will find his horses to be. We have, however, 

 already gone so thoroughly into the question of stables, 1 that 

 we need not enter into detail here. 



A great difficulty with regard to horses in a gentleman's 

 establishment, so different from public coach-horses who run 

 their ten or twelve miles every day, is the want of uniformity 

 in the amount of work that the horse gets. From some cause 

 or other he may not . go out for three or four days, the next 

 three or four days he may be out every day upon journeys of 

 varying length. Therefore either the master himself or his 

 groom must try and exercise what sense has been given each, 

 in apportioning the amount of exercise that the horse should 

 take ; in one case it may be necessary for the animal to make 

 up for the want of work, in the other he will require merely 

 sufficient to stretch his legs for healthy purposes after he has 

 been on a long journey. One great difficulty the groom has 



1 Hunting, p. 89. 



