164 CONFESSIONS OF A HOKSE DEALEE. 



Bent state of horse-breeding, such as are strong enough 

 to do this, and he hought at a reasonable price, are too 

 much like cart horses, having straight shoulders, and, 

 what is worse, their fore-feet are a great deal too far 

 under them, and their low breeding makes them sluggy, 

 and after trotting a few miles they soon become tired, 

 which an experienced rider will soon perceive by the 

 shortening of their step, and if not well kept in hand 

 they will fall. 



There are hundreds of gentlemen whose close and 

 sedentary labours are of great importance to their coun- 

 try, whose health and spirits would be much improved 

 if they were able to get horses, at a reasonable price, 

 sufficiently safe on which to take daily exercise. It is 

 the dearth of stout, compact, deep-bodied, short-legged 

 cob horses, from fourteen and a-half to fifteen hands 

 and a-half high, with small heads, sound feet, oblique- 

 formed shoulders, and muscular arms and thighs, which, 

 if produced in great numbers, would gladden the hearts 

 brace the nerves, and lengthen the lives of our portly 

 fathers, uncles, and grandfathers, who, by taking plenty 

 of horse-exercise, would not require their usual antidote 

 for gout, &c. I am old enough to remember such horses 

 "being plentiful, and while able to carry fifteen or sixteen 

 atone with ease, were also so well bred as never to re- 

 quire the services of the clipper in winter, who now 

 drives so profitable a trade ; but suppose one of these 

 stout elderly gentlemen who may be a good judge of 

 horses, sits down in his easy chair and forms a picture 



