



XI. WAR-HORSES 



WAR and the chase are the ultimate objects for which 

 the Commission on Irish Horse-breeding has lately 

 been hearing the evidence of experts on both sides of 

 the Channel. The Irish owners desire to raise a class 

 of horses the best of which can be sold at a high price 

 for hunting, while the rest pay their way as cavalry 

 remounts. How best to combine these objects the Com- 

 mission will have to decide. Thoroughbred sires, it 

 is agreed, produce the stock most likely to make good 

 hunters ; and though the ' hackney ' is much in favour 

 with some breeders of cavalry horses, we have very 

 little doubt that the better bred these are the more 

 likely they are to stand the rough work of war. 



The modern heavy cavalry horse has to carry a total 

 weight, made up of man, harness, and equipment, of 

 20 st. 280 Ib. and the light cavalry horse a weight 

 of 1 7 st. He is expected, if required, to march thirty 

 miles in one day, and to be able to do his work on the 



next. Bought in Ireland at three years old, he is two 



80 



