146 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



goodness of roads and improvement in vehicles, we have 

 found improvement in breed absolutely indispensable — hence 

 the change in the carriage-horse. 



Our other harness horse is now the brougham or cab- 

 horse. For a perfect cab -horse, he must now be kept 

 to that vocation only. To be perfect, he requires many 

 qualifications not easily met with ; indeed, some of them 

 are rare to get combined. In double harness a horse may 

 be a little awkward or lazy, inclined to bolt, or even to run 

 away ; may be somewhat restive, or a little unsafe in his 

 action ; still, with a good partner, a man anything of a 

 coachman can make him do his business at least tolerably. 

 Even in a gig-horse there are many little imperfections that 

 may be compensated for by other qualifications, for he is 

 wanted to be fast and lasting. We may put up with many 

 serious objections in such horses for the sake of pace and 

 style of going. Impatience would, to many persons, be a 

 very serious fault in a horse for single harness. A clever 

 driver of gig or dog-cart will not mind a hasty-tempered 

 one for this purpose ; but this would be intolerable in the 

 c.?.b-horse. 



He must be, or should be, singularly handsome, of com- 

 manding size ; must be fast, or at least extremely quick in 

 all his movements ; be able and willing at one moment to 

 go fourteen miles an hour, the next be as willing to walk, if 

 w^anted, at the rate of three. He must stand motionless 

 while his aristocratic owner enjoys his colloquy at the 

 coroneted carriage window ; must not want the application 

 of the toy-whip, or pull so as to stretch or twist the fingers 

 of the white, lemon, or pink kids. To want holding at a 

 door would render him useless, for who is to hold him ? he 

 must know by instinct that minute piece of humanity, 

 yclept " the tiger," is before him, for seeing him is out of 

 the question to a horse in harness. In going, the slightest 

 indication on his mouth must suffice. He ought never, if a 

 well-taught cab-horse, to voluntarily stop, or attempt to stop, 

 at doors because he has often stopped at them before. This 

 is the habit of butchers', bakers', and such plebeian horses ; 

 for though our scion of nobility or aristocracy may also 

 at times stop at the same doors, it might be extremely 

 inconvenient that his horse should indicate that his master 

 did so. 



Having stated some actions that the cab-horse must not 



