162 CONFESSIONS OF A HORSE DEALEB. 



when riding down a rough country lane or over broken 

 ground, because the fore feet of a clever saddle horse, 

 be the pace walk, trot, or canter, are always well for- 

 ward, and fall flatly and evenly on the ground ; and 

 when in action the fore legs are sufficiently, but not 

 too much bent, the action coming direct from the shoul- 

 ders. But the most agreeable feature experienced in 

 riding perfect saddle horses is, the ease and elasticity 

 with which they move in all their paces, thereby spar- 

 ing the rider any feeling of fatigue. 



Not only is the number of good hacks and hunters 

 'become very limited, but those we have except a few 

 in the hands of masters of hounds and members of 

 hunts are too apt at an early age to display some of 

 the infirmities to which their race are now so subject, 

 in the shape of curbs, splints, and spavins, consequent 

 upon the hurry the breeders are in to bring them into 

 the market before they arrive at a proper working age. 

 Thousands of capital saddle horses are annually sacri- 

 ficed from this very cause. 



I partly attribute the downward tendency of our 

 breed of saddle horses to the rage for speed, which is 

 now so prominent a feature on the English turf ; but 

 when we take into consideration what long-continued 

 and careful selection on our turf has effected, when the 

 sole object was speed, we may reasonably anticipate as 

 important and beneficial results from equally judicious 

 selection, when our object is to produce horses possess- 

 ing that fine union of qualities so essential to good sad- 



