448 THE HOESE. 



Tlie first thing towards accomplishing a journey well, and 

 in good style and good time, is to start well ; and, in order to 

 do that, the horse or horses to be used, being presupposed to 

 be in good condition, should have been fed and watered long 

 enough before the hour of starting to have digested their food ; 

 that is to say, to have passed it from the stomach into the intes- 

 tines, so that there shall be no danger of foundering the horse, 

 or breaking his wind, by driving him when he is in nowise fit 

 to be driven. 



When this is all right, it is still advisable that the driver 

 should, on first taking his horses in hand, let them jog along 

 gently for the first mile and a half of their journey, and he will 

 generally see the animals clearing their bowels and throwing 

 oft' the digested remains of the last meal ; by the appearance 

 and consistence of which he will readily judge of the fitness 

 of his horse, or team, for the work, which he or they, has, or 

 have to perform. 



While on the road, the first thing and the most necessary to 

 inculcate, because generally unknown or misunderstood, is that, 

 next to a continual ascent, the hardest road on which horses 

 can possibly travel, is a long dead level — for the reasons, first, 

 that there is a necessity for a constant pressure into the collar, 

 in order to keep the traces tight and the vehicle in motion, 

 since the friction will prevent the best ranning carriage, that 

 can be built, from following ; and second — this being applicable 

 as much to working under the saddle as to going in harness — 

 that the same set of muscles are kept continually at work, in- 

 stead of one set being relieved by another, which is brought 

 into play alternately in the ascent and descent of hills. 



There having been a long standing dispute on this question, 

 it was solved, some years since, by the officers of one of her 

 Majesty's regiments, quartered at Fredericton, New Brunswick, 

 who instituted a series of experiments with a number of horses, 

 on two tracks, each of fifty measured miles, one on the road 

 covered with snow, undulating over hill and dale, parallel to the 

 river St. Johns, and the other on the snow-covered, icy surface 

 of the river itself; in which trials, it was found that the horses, 

 which had proved themselves victorious on the road, were in- 

 variably beaten on the river, by the very animals which had 



