276 THE HORSE. 



fail to obtain more. As to free horses, indeed the 

 generality, they need little or no driving, and often 

 are rather cowed, embarrassed, and retarded by it. 

 There are, also, high stomached horses, that, being 

 severely whipped when all abroad and at their best, 

 of which they are well aware, will instantly slacken 

 instead of endeavouring to increase their speed. I 

 once experienced a remarkable instance of this, 

 among others, in riding a trial upon a true and stout 

 runner, and it is a circumstance well known to 

 jockeys. Common humanity and compassion require 

 a moderation of this absurd custom, which modera- 

 tion, if general, would operate equally and fairly on 

 all proprietors of racers. Perhaps the chief objection 

 to the proposed change, subsists in the case of the 

 jockeys, who, not having cut half way to their horse's 

 entrails, may thence have been supposed to have em- 

 ployed only half their powers to win. But there are 

 other equally sufficient tests of this, always well 

 known on the course. Cutting up horses, known to 

 be incapable of winning, and those, though capable, 

 which do not run to win, is surely gratuitous cruelty. 

 There is, finally, a strong and valid distinction be- 

 tween use and utility ; and when a horse has won by 

 a head or neck, both proprietors and jockeys, in 

 attributing their success to the extreme use of whip- 

 cord and cold iron, may, as is so perpetually the case 

 in other affairs, have assigned the effect to a wrong 

 cause, to one, perhaps, which may have, in degree, 

 operated unfavourably. When a horse is at all that 

 he can do, what the devil more can you have of him, 

 but to keep him up to the mark ? which surely, en- 

 couragement and moderation will most successfully 



