LIGHTER CARRIAGE AND SADDLE HORSES. 601 



the inducement to cultivate particular kinds of horses. Few 

 persons now make distant journeys on horseback, and are 

 willing to travel at the rate of five miles an hour when they 

 can be carried forward at the rate of ten or more in common 

 coaches, and at the rate of thirty and more by the aid of 

 steam. A horseman with his load of saddlebags is now 

 almost as rare a sight as an elephant. A class of saddle- 

 horses, accordingly, formerly used for journeys, has now 

 almost disappeared. They were termed ROAD-HORSES, and 

 were suited to their employment. They were strong, useful, 

 and safe, but had little or no breeding. Their paces were 

 the walk and trot ; and the canter and the gallop were nearly 

 as much out of place with them as with the cart-horse. The 

 COB, too, a little squat horse fitted for drudgery, is with some 

 difficulty to be procured. For the shorter journeys now in 

 use, and for all the usual services of the horseman, animals 

 of lighter form and more easy paces are preferred, and few 

 habitual riders are satisfied with horses that have not more 

 or less of breeding. 



The OLD ENGLISH COACH-HORSE may be said to have dis- 

 appeared, or rather to be used only for the heavier labours 

 of draught. He was a large animal of the cart-horse form, 

 usually black, denoting his affinity with the horses of Flan- 

 ders, which long supplied England and other countries with 

 this kind of horse. He was round-shouldered and heavy in 

 his paces ; but being generally trained in the manner of the 

 manege, he had a high and prancing action. His pace was 

 the slow trot, and rarely exceeded four or five miles in the 

 hour. Some of these horses are still to be seen in the car- 

 riages of the nobility and older gentry of England ; but for 

 the most part they have given place to animals of far supe- 

 rior breeding and action. The modern Coach- Horse is a very 

 different animal from the old. He is a large Horse, having 

 a degree of breeding conducive to spirit and action, with the 

 strength and bone required for draught. He is greatly used 

 in private carriages, as chariots, gigs, and the innumerable 



