eO CARRIAGE HORSES. 



should be free from starting, stumbling, and kicking, and 

 their dispositions patient, gentle, and obedient. It very 

 often happens that horses are kept together as a match, on 

 account of their color and similarity of marks, when no re- 

 spect is paid to their difference of form, spirit, and move- 

 ments, which often differ as widely as the mettled racer 

 from the dull cart horse. When thus badly matched, they 

 would very soon be separated by a good judge, and noth- 

 ing short of necessity should ever permit them to draw to- 

 gether. Carriage horses should carry good tails, naturally, 

 or artificially, * which adds much to their gay and elegant 

 appearance; presenting figures ready, apparently, to move 

 upon the wind, whilst they are perfectly gentle and man- 

 ageable. Horses of different colors, whose spirit, size, and 

 movements are similar, are a much better match in harness 

 than those of the same color with three or four inches dif- 

 ference in height; or one dull and the other spirited ; one 

 young, the other old ; one fat, the other poor ; one with a 

 bald face and white legs, the other with white legs ; or one 

 active and the other clumsy. 



I have thus taken up the time of the reader, to make him 

 the better judge, and give him a correct idea of a bad 

 match of carriage horses, which will assist him much in 

 selecting those that are good. After being thoroughly sat- 

 isfied about the shape, age, condition, &c., of a pair of 

 carriage horses you may be about to purchase, it will be 

 ^necessary, in justice to yourself, to try them in harness ; 

 though the seller will assure you they are as gentle as lambs, 

 true as honor, and finally, the best pair of horses in the 

 world ; although it is possible for such a statement to be a 



* The plan of nicking, to satisfy the fancy of their owners, we disapprove of 

 on principle, as it is both cruel and brutal, and should never be allowed by Mr. 

 Bergh's Society. ED. 



