THE HORSE. 145 



it be performed naturally and handsomely, the neck 

 gracefully curved, and the mouth having pleasant 

 and good feeling ; these are natural canterers, they 

 will last at it, taking to it, and on the proper signal 

 dropping into the trot or walk, without roughness, 

 boggling, or changing of legs. But the first and 

 grand consideration is going safely ; for a horse, defi- 

 cient in that respect, is perhaps always most liable 

 to fall in his canter. The most graceful canterers 

 may be observed to lead generally, with the off leg ; 

 but no doubt there is such an error, as a horse, both 

 in his canter and gallop, going with the wrong leg 

 first, to the considerable uneasiness of the rider ; this 

 is most felt upon worn and battered horses, which 

 change their legs to procure momentary ease. 



Carriage horses. These are divided into coach 

 horses of the first class ; horses of inferior size for the 

 chariot, and a hunting-like kind of horses for the 

 curricle and the various kinds of carriages now in 

 use, and for single harness. Our horses also for 

 common road work, are of the last description, and 

 indeed our coach cattle, almost universally, have a 

 show, and many of them a considerable portion of 

 racing blood ; a measure of necessity from the pre- 

 vailing fashion, from the activity required, and from 

 the pace at which they are expected to travel. The 

 enormous and killing; rate, at which we of this coun- 

 try have been accustomed to travel, during the last 

 forty years upwards, such as no age or nation ever 

 before witnessed, has occasioned an annual destruc- 

 tion of horses, that the scarcity and high price of 

 fresh and sound ones is necessarily a matter of 



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