5 2 How to Purchase a Horse. 



hands : that of the latter from ic hands 2 in. to 16 hands. 

 Good useful animals of either class will cost from £40 

 to £50. 



Cobs and Ponies. 



The cob is a strong little horse, about 14 hands high, 

 and of various descriptions. The better class are bred 

 principally in Norfolk or Lincolnshire. When well-bred 

 and good-looking, with action, they are not only very use- 

 ful, but very valuable for carrying heavy and elderly men, 

 as, being low, they are easy to get on and off. A good 

 cob must have a good head, a strong but not heavy neck, 

 good oblique and very strong shoulders, not loaded at the 

 top or points, a deep round body, good loin, and strong 

 muscular quarters and thighs — short, flat, firm legs, and 

 good round feet : he should walk freely and well ; step 

 sharp and high in the trot, and canter safely and freely ; 

 if, in addition to these qualifications, he is quiet and does 

 not shy or stumble, he is invaluable. A great many are 

 bred in Wales, but by far the best come from Norfolk, 

 Lincolnshire, and the North, where much more attention 

 is paid to breeding them, and more care is taken of them 

 than in Wales, where they run wild on the hills till they 

 are three or four years old, when they are sent over into 

 England in droves to be sold at the different fairs and 

 markets. 



The faults to be avoided in purchasing a cob are upright 

 shoulders, want of courage, and want of action. Particu- 

 lar attention must be paid to the shoulders — that they are 

 well formed and oblique, many horses of this class having 

 low, upright shoulders, which renders them valueless as 

 liding cobs, and useful only for harness purposes — nothing 

 being so uncomfortable and looking so ugly as riding on 

 the top of the shoulders instead of well behind them, which 

 must necessarily be the case with straight, low shoulders. 

 In fact, the value of a cob depends almost entirely on his 

 shoulders and action ; for, whereas in the one case he 

 would be only worth £30, in the other he might be worth 

 ;£i2o, or even more. Some very fast-trotting cobs are 



