CAPTAIN SHABBYHOUNDE 243 



incipient spavin, a iifth a little warmth in the off leg, a sixth 

 that his feet didn't match, a seventh suspected incipient 

 cataract, while the herd of greenhorns condemned his standing 

 over legs, which were in fact one of the best points about him. 

 We are not like Luke Lieall, the " Cripplegate Pet," as he is 

 called by the horse-dealers, who invariably expatiates on the 

 advantages of any infirmity about a horse that he wants to 

 sell, but we may observe that real standing over legs, such as 

 Lambkin had, are a recommendation. Standing over legs are 

 of two sorts, the natural and the acquired. The natural, of 

 course, are those with which a horse is foaled, while the 

 acquired are the result of hard work, as are too strikingly 

 portrayed by stage coach and cab horses, knuckling towards 

 the ground. It is a truism for which we will vouch the great 

 Tat himself, that naturally standing over legs never fail, while 

 the others have too palpably failed already. That however is 

 beside the subject. The question before the house is " what 

 was the matter with Lambkin ? " Well reader, what do you 

 think it was ? D'ye give it up ? Well, we'll tell you. He 

 ivas difficult to mount ! 



We have already stated that he was good tempered — even 

 playful — but he had his peculiarity, and that peculiarity 

 consisted in kicking people over his head the moment they 

 mounted. To further his amiable designs, nature had endowed 

 him with the most powerful back and loins that ever horse 

 possessed. Even in leaping, it required a good seat to keep in 

 the saddle with the tremendous lashes out he gave behind, 

 and the reader may easily imagine what redoubled force he 

 would muster for a premeditated kick, and with what awful 

 violence it would tell on the unsuspecting confidence of a half 

 acquired seat. Lambkin could spanghew a rider as clean as 

 ever schoolboy spanghewd a sparrow from a trap. Send him 

 flying through the air like an arrow or a darting hawk. It 

 was only at the first mounting he did it. If the rider — or 



