14 THE STUD. 



will, therefore, buy a four years' old horse that 

 has never done a day^s work. 



I will acknowledge that if he does so he may, 

 probably, get his desideratum ; but do not let him 

 make too sure of this. There are such things 

 as four years' olds, unsound, as well as worked, 

 horses. But, supposing him to have got this 

 sound animal, what has he got ? An animal that 

 he has to run the risk of making useful, so far 

 as teaching him his business goes ; and by the 

 time this is effectually done, and the colt has 

 arrived at a serviceable age, he will probably be 

 quite as unsound as many of those he has re- 

 jected : independent of which, and supposing him 

 to continue sound, the breeder of this horse must 

 have better luck or better judgment in breeding 

 than his neighbours, if more than one in four or 

 five that he does breed turn out desii-able horses. 

 If he turns out but a middling sort of beast, it is 

 but small satisfaction to know that he is sound ; 

 in fact, so little satisfaction should I feel, that, if 

 I was compelled to kee^i and use him, so far from 

 rejoicing that he was sound, I should only regret 

 that he was not dead. 



If my reader pays me the compliment of attach- 

 ing any weight to what I write, he will probably 

 say that I have put him quite out of heart with 

 respect to buying, or hoping to get a sound horse. 

 This is precisely what I wished to do : that is, so 



