The Poor Maris Hunter 



horse because his pasterns were too long, and 

 never had reason to regret not doing so. 



But after all, the great matter in a general pur- 

 pose horse is his action. A horse with smooth 

 easy level action not too high, that puts his feet 

 down well, should not be rejected. 



I never have possessed or known a useful horse 

 with hackney blood, and I look out for the signs 

 of this breeding jealously. The coarse head and 

 neck, the foreleg tied in below the knee, the 

 round action, all tell a tale. But this exclusion of 

 the hackney from the utility stable does not include 

 what are called hackney ponies, so called because 

 they are in the Hackney Stud Book. They are only 

 there because it was at one time the only book open 

 to ponies, and have none of the softness of the 

 hackney of the showyard. I am not depreciating 

 the hackney in his or her place. They are de- 

 lightful horses and they have improved greatly of 

 late years, but that place is not in the general 

 utility stable. They are, as Sir Richard Green 

 Price says, bad to ride. 



Bearing these points in mind, and comparing 

 what you have read here with the horses you see 

 on the roads, your eye will soon become trained 

 to note the leading points of a good formation. 

 You will not, of course, expect to find them all 

 combined in any one horse, and you will lay more 

 or less stress on any one of them, according 

 to the principal purpose for which you require the 



31 



