HORSES AND HORSEMASTERSHIP. 



Chapter I. 



CONFORMATION. 



A well-known authority whose work on the Horse has 

 afforded me many pleasant and profitable hours since 

 I first made its acquaintance, now many years ago, 

 states : ''A good horse is an animal with many good, few 

 indifferent, and no bad points," a dictum with which, 

 after much experience, I respectfully agree, with this 

 reservation : I have come across many excellent horses 

 which were anything but good Jookinf/. I shall be 

 going as far I feel at liberty to in an elementary treatise 

 such as this if I endeavour to describe the outward 

 appearance of a good troop or saddle horse, and at the 

 same time touch upon some points which detract from 

 the merits of such an one. 



With regard to height : to my mind the most useful 

 size is 15 hands 2 inches (it seems superfluous to mention 

 that a "hand" is four inches). A horse of this measure- 

 ment does not look out of place whether his rider be 

 tall or short ; but there is a certain amount of the 

 incongruous about a six-foot man on a 14-hands pony, 

 or a five-footer on a 16-hands horse. I am also of 



