THE HORSE. 147 



private carriages are generally well broke and trained, 

 by no means the case, as has been said, with the 

 other kinds used for quick draught. With respect 

 to horses for single harness, the cause above stated 

 has long since exploded any difference between them 

 and the hackney, this last being indifferently used 

 for saddle or harness, as his substance may suit. 

 Many years ago, it was a very prevailing fashion to 

 drive mares, and in consequence, there was then 

 raised and selected a peculiar class of strong, short 

 legged, bold and high crested or well topped mares, 

 universally known as gig mares, which being gene- 

 rally sought after, commanded a good price ; Mr. 

 Aldridge, late of the repository in St. Martin's Lane, 

 will well remember these. They had their day ; and 

 it has since been decided by our knowing ones, that 

 the gelding is to be preferred to the mare, for his 

 superior steadiness in harness. Ponies for draught, 

 have greatly advanced in public estimation, and an 

 increasing number is annually procured in the Hio-h- 

 lands of Scotland and Wales, for that purpose and 

 for the saddle. The price, I suppose, of a sound five 

 year old poney, is between ten and twenty guineas ; 

 in former days, between five and ten. 



It is an unwelcome subject to introduce, but justice 

 to the reader demands it, however little regard it may 

 experience from him. I refer to the perpetual recur- 

 rence of those accidents, too many of them fatal, 

 which blacken the columns of our newspapers ; the 

 great and constantly operating cause of this, is the 

 almost insatiable demand for quick draught horses, 

 rendering purchasers too eager and hasty in their 



