COACH-HORSES. i37 



is the care of this particular horse confided, he passes 

 through too many hands to become a special object 

 of solicitude. 



We are told that some of the draymen In the large 

 breweries take a great pride in their magnificent 

 horses, and entertain a genuine affection for them ; 

 such is frequently the case with railway employes, 

 who have charo-e of horses enofao-ed in shuntinq; trains 

 or moving trucks to and fro at various termini and 

 junctions. But these and various other instances are 

 where men have had an opportunity of becoming 

 actually acquainted with a horse, when, imperceptibly 

 .though surely, the animal gains a hold on their affec- 

 tions and secures kind treatment. But a London cab- 

 driver, a caretaker of ponies in the vast coal-mines 

 of the North, a London omnibus-driver employed 

 during the day to drive several different pairs of 

 horses, and more particularly the coachmen of the 

 old coaches in days gone by, have and had no oppor- 

 tunity of knowing the animals they drove, except as 

 fast or slow, willing or sluggish, quiet or the reverse ; 

 they are and have ever been regarded as machines 

 that are necessary to progression, to maintain which 

 the whip of the coachman has frequently to be used. 



Four years was considered to be the limit of a 

 coach-horse's employment on the road. If we take 

 a horse's life (during which time with care he can be 

 made serviceable to man) as from fifteen to twenty 

 years, it seems sad indeed that for four years only 

 of this period he should be in the condition of health 

 and vigour requisite for doing the fast work he was 

 called upon to perform when harnessed to a four-horse 

 coach. It Is a very great mistake for people to use a 

 horse when too young ; to use a horse under five years 



