128 niNTS TO horsemen; oe, 



price, and it should be so ; the idea that an5-thing 

 good-lookii]g is good enough to carry a woman, is a 

 most mistaken one ; there is no description of horse 

 so difficult ta get, which will appear evident, when 

 we specify, without any exaggeration, the qualities he 

 must possess to approach perfection for this purpose. 

 He must be unequivocally courageous, at the same 

 time perfectly gentle; high-spirited, yet eminently 

 good-tempered and docile ; safe in his action, and 

 that action graceful ; easy in his motions, with a 

 mouth that is sensible to every motion of the hand, 

 or pressure of the finger ; always ready to go, but 

 equally amenable to the voice or hand giving him the 

 signal to stop ; he must be firm on his legs, and 

 strong from unity and symmetry of make, with, at the 

 same time, an absence of anything approaching coarse- 

 ness of appearance ; he must, in fact, look a gentle- 

 man at a lady's service ; he must be, at the same 

 time, what it is not indispensable that the biped 

 gentleman should be, — namely, strikingly handsome. 

 The reader will judge how far it is easy or difficult 

 to find a horse with such combined good qualities, 



