TROUBLESOME HORSE 189 



one of his hunters) " would make a good match for this 

 near leader ? " 



" Match him well," replied the son, " for colour, size, 

 and action." 



" Suppose we give him to Tom " — for so he familiarly- 

 designated me — " the season's over, you know, Harry, 

 boy." 



"He won't go in harness," replied the other. 



Catching at this, and not willing to let so good an 

 offer go by, I said, — 



" Let me try. I never knew a horse I could not make 

 go, if not a kicker." 



" I'll send him." 



He was sent the following day. I looked at him, and 

 thought him a very likely animal ; but I knew his 

 fault, and called to mind my feat at Oxford. Here, 

 however, was no canal. There was a stable at a lone 

 house, and not even a break to try him in nearer than 

 Cambridge. I do not pretend to have the acumen or 

 experience of Mr. Rarey, whose abilities I should like to 

 have seen tested upon a variety of tempers that have 

 come under my own supervision ; but I concluded this 

 animal had been tried in the usual way, and that nothing 

 could be made of him. I thought that when this horse 

 should be put beside the one he intended to match, as off- 

 leader, he would be free from the confinement of the 

 pole and pole-chain, and finding himself at liberty, and 

 seeing nothing before him but the road, that he would 

 suffer himself to be led ofi" by the other, and gradually 

 take up his work. 



But I was mistaken. I had no sooner got on the box 



