128 THE HORSE. 



upland hay, in its natural state, after they have finished their allow- 

 ance of corn. Young stock intended to be sold as hunters and first- 

 class carriage-horses are always allowed half a peck of bruised oats, 

 and a few carrots and turnips will not be thrown away upon them. 

 Hacks, and inferior young stock of all kinds, get through the winter 

 upon hay and barley-straw, part being sometimes cut into chafi", 

 and mixed with a quartern of bran, daily; and if they are very low 

 in flesh, a few oats being added. During severe frosts the straw- 

 yard is the best place for the foal, on account of the hardness of 

 the ground in the fields, and here he will easily keep himself warm 

 and dry, and he can be attended to according to his wants. Let 

 the breeder, however, constantly bear in mind that a check given 

 to the growth in the first winter is never afterwards entirely reco- 

 vered, and that if the colt which has experienced it turns out well 

 he would have been still better without it. 



CHAPTER IX. 

 THE BREAKING OF THE COLT. 



Mr. Rarey^s Principles and Practice — Ordinary Method of Break- 

 ing for the Saddle — Superiority of the Latter when properly 

 carried out — Breaking to Harness. 



The year 1858 will ever be memorable in the annals of the 

 English stable for the success of Mr. Rarey and his partner, Mr. 

 Groodenough, in extracting 25,000^. from the pockets of English 

 horsemen by the promise of a new method of breaking and train- 

 ing the animal which they all loved so well, but so often found not 

 quite obedient to their wills. The plans by which obedience was 

 to be insured were kept a profound secret, but to prove Mr. Rarey's 

 power, the French coaching stallion, Stafford, the English thorough- 

 bred, Cruiser, and a gray colt in the possession of Mr. Anderson, 

 of Piccadilly, all notoriously vicious, were privately subdued, and 

 afterwards exhibited in public. Subscribers were invited to pay 

 ten guineas each, with the engagement that as soon as five hundred 

 names were put down, the American would teach them in classes, 

 each subscriber binding himself, under a heavy penalty, to keep 

 the secret. The result was that eleven hundred ladies and gentle- 

 men paid their money, and kept their promise so well that until 

 the appearance of a small shilling volume, published by Messrs. 

 Routledge & Co., which detailed the whole process, in the very 

 words given to the American public some years before by Mr. 



