THE HORSE. 171 



dation and absolute conquest will succeed. Such 

 severity indeed, instead of a cure, may sometimes 

 produce desperation ; and when patience and mild 

 measures will succeed, they are infinitely preferable. 

 The vicious horse has various modes of showing it ; 

 but I think the most dangerous of any that I have 

 had the good fortune to be associated with, have 

 been from those which will stop short on the way, 

 hold the head down almost immovably, ' and suck 

 in the wind,' as it is termed, to the swelling out of 

 their bodies as if intending to burst the girths. I 

 have frequently been under the expectation, that an 

 actor in this way, meditated to lie down and roll 

 over me. Among some very bad bargains which in 

 th§ dear season I bought for a friend in the North, 

 at the London Repositories, was a mare warranted 

 * quiet to ride, and quiet in harness.' She proved 

 the worst of the above description that I have known ; 

 and two or three of perhaps as experienced and able 

 men as any in the metropolis, could not put her into 

 harness. Nevertheless the warranty was forfeited, 

 I could get no return of the money without a law- 

 suit, for which I was unwilling to exchange even a 

 restive horse. 



The Irishman of old, being ridiculed for suffering 

 his horse to run away with him, retorted, " And, 

 by Jasus ! how would I be able to stop him, when I 

 had no spurs?" There is, however, a better than an 

 Irish reason for wearing spurs. A restive horse 

 would once have gone down a cellar with me, but 

 for my spur on the cellarside ; and, in the case 

 of being placed between two objects, one of which 



