8 A COUNTRY READER. 



So beautifully shaped is the body for speed, so 

 clean and hard the legs, so well knit the frame, 

 so sound the wind and condition, so keen the 

 eyesight, so courageous the heart, that these 

 beautiful creatures have been said to gallop for a 

 short distance as fast as an ordinary express 

 train can travel when moving at its best, namely, 

 sixty miles per hour. 



To produce such an animal as this means 

 generations of careful selection and breeding, the 

 best known system of stabling, grooming, train- 

 ing, feeding, and caring for generally. In con- 

 sequence of this careful breeding and training, 

 these thoroughbreds are often very nervous, and 

 therefore impatient and restless, and, if roughly 

 and cruelly treated, their disposition or tempera- 

 ment is easily spoilt, and they become vicious 

 and dangerous. 



As these horses have been bred and trained 

 principally for galloping, they are bad trotters 

 and walkers they do not lift their legs well off 

 the ground and are seldom used for hunting or 

 carriage work. 



Riding or Hunting Horse. 



A hunter or riding horse ought to have a good 

 proportion of the thoroughbred about it, but it 

 is thicker and stronger than the thoroughbred 

 up to more weight, as it is termed. The quarters 



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