242 HORSEMANSHIP. 



that is, more than natural, action is created, which 

 will have the same beneficial efi'ect. As to the 

 rate at which horses should be put on the road, 

 that is a point so much under the control of circum- 

 stances, that no line can be drawn respecting it ; 

 but our experience assures us, that if a horse has 

 to perform the distance we have already taken as a 

 fair day's work, namely, sixty miles, under not a 

 very heavy man, he would perform it with more 

 ease to himself, and feel less from it the following 

 day, if he travelled at the rate of seven or eight 

 miles in the hour, than less. In the first place, 

 this rate of speed is no great exertion to a horse of 

 good action, and also in good condition ; and, in 

 the next, by performing his day's work in less time 

 than if he travelled slower, he gets sooner to rest, 

 and is, of course, sooner fit to go to work again. 

 Let it, however, be observed, that he should have 

 two hours quiet rest in the middle of the journey, 

 which will enable him to perform it without fatigue. 

 But we do not recommend this rate of travelling, 

 when a much greater extent of ground is before us. 

 If a horse is to be ridden two or three hundred 

 miles or more, he ought not to travel, in the best 

 of weather, more than from thirty to forty miles 

 per day, and he should rest the entire of the fifth 

 day, or he will become leg-weary, hit his legs, or 

 perhaps fall. We are of course alluding to valuable 

 horses, with which extra expense is not to be put 

 into the scale against the risk of injuring them. 

 The earlier travelling horses, in the summer parti- 



