FIRST-HAND BITS OF STABLE LORE 



ing the muscles goes, and she does not "make 

 allowances ; " everything the new horse does must 

 be the identical thing that old Nellie did, and that 

 respected and defunct family treasure is the coat 

 which the cloth of the new horse must fit, or 

 woe to his former possessor — the dealer. A 

 horse is a fool, and he is a coward ; his mind is 

 one-ideaed ; and what he has done is no criterion 

 of what he may do at the next moment. Nature 

 constructed him thus, and he is not to be blamed 

 for his limitations, but they must be recognized 

 and allowed for. The man who unreservedly 

 places his family at the mercy of any horse under 

 feminine guidance courts disaster, which is almost' 

 certain sooner or later to arrive ; and the dealer 

 who sells a horse with a warranty that it is safe 

 for a woman to use, does a most reprehensible 

 thing, and carelessly exposes to danger thousands 

 of innocent lives. A horse fears nothing familiar, 

 nearly everything that is strange ; a woman's 

 skirts fluttering in the wind will stampede a herd 

 of plains horses, who will, any of them, allow one 

 to shoot from their backs ; and some day the one 

 dreadful object heaves in view ; foolishness prompts 

 fear, fear flight ; weak arms, slender hands, and 

 tight gloves play their useless parts, and Mary 



i8 



