24 Present Varieties of tJie Horse. 



Coach horses are either ponies, gig horses, Brougham 

 horses, or coach horses ; being gradually larger and hea- 

 vier from one end to the other of the line, which begins at 

 the size of a small pony and extends up to the carriage 

 horse of 17 hands. Ponies are met with all over England, 

 Ireland, and Scotland, and are of various breeds, some of 

 which are of wonderful powers of endurance, with good 

 symmetry and action, and with never-failing legs and feet. 

 In general soundness they far excel the larger varieties 

 of the horse, for which there is no accounting, as they are 

 much more neglected and frequently very ill-used. A 

 broken-winded pony, or a roarer, is a very uncommon sight, 

 and even a lame one is by no means an every-day occur- 

 rence. There is every reason to believe that the Arab 

 blood has been largely diffused among the ponies of our 

 heaths and forests ; and their neat heads and great powers 

 of endurance, together with the small size of their bones, 

 would warrant the assumption. Among the Welsh ponies 

 there is a strong cross of the Norman horse, and they have 

 many of them the dark mark down the back which is pecu- 

 liar to that breed, together with the hardiness of constitu- 

 tion inherent in it. Gigsters of all kinds are the refuse of 

 the hunting stock or of the racing stud, those which are 

 too clumsy and slow for those purposes being put to har- 

 ness. Some are good trotters and yet bad gallopers, and 

 they are consequently as well fitted for harness work as 

 they are unsuited for hunting. A great number of gigsiers 

 are also under-sized carriage horses, which latter are the 

 produce of Cleveland or Clydesdale mares by well-bred 01 

 even thorough-bred horses. Until lately the Cleveland 

 mare was almost the sole origin, on the dam's side, of our 

 best carriage horses ; but latterly the Clydesdale mare has 

 been very extensively used, and with much better success ; 

 inasmuch as the produce are much more hardy, and though, 

 perhaps, not quite so level, yet more blood-like, and their 

 legs and feet much more firm and enduring. 



The Cavalry horse may be considered under three 

 several heads : first, the charger, or officer's horse; secondly, 

 the heavy trooper ; and thirdly, the light trooper. The 

 Charger is almost always thorough-bred, or very nearly 



