Section 3. 

 Work. 



The Amount of Work expected from horses is a question which has 

 hitherto been greatly lacking in exact expression. That many animals 

 are worked beyond their powers is undoubted, the evidence being 

 the short period of their useful life. In days gone by, when the 

 horse was the only means of transport, there was no attempt made 

 to save him, especially in public vehicles ; his life in the early stage- 

 coach was three years. The stages were from fourteen to twenty 

 miles in length, but experience and economy brought them down 

 to ten miles. Youatt* tells us that towards the end of the eighteenth 

 century, during election-time, bets were made as to which express 

 would kill the greatest number of horses. f In his day animals in 

 the public omnibuses only lasted five or six months. Taplin, 

 writing in 1793, says that the rage for expeditious travelling was 

 leading to the destruction of thousands of horses. In an otherwise 

 admirable book on horse management, published in 18054 it is 

 stated that a horse should travel thirty to forty miles on end without 

 drawing rein at from eight to ten miles an hour ; this is described as 

 ordinary work. Severe or, as it is termed, ' extraordinary ' work 

 was represented by a gallop of twenty miles, or trotting sixteen 

 miles in the hour. W. Ward,§ in 1776, advised that a distance of 

 forty-five to fifty miles a day in three stages should not be exceeded. 

 He says he knew of people doing sixty, seventy, and eighty miles a 

 day, but it required a very good horse, and could only be done 

 for one or two days. J. Lawrence, writing in 1809JI considered that 

 fifty to sixty miles a day, between^ a.m. and 5 p.m., could be done 

 in stages of twenty miles, trotting and cantering alternately. In 

 a journey of vweeks and months together, he regarded twenty to 

 thirty-five miles a day as suitable. The ordinary hack of that period 

 is described as travelling forty or fifty miles a day at seven or eight 

 miles an hour, and it is stated that with a suitable weight they may 

 do this for two or three successive days. The best hack did ten 

 or eleven miles an hour, and anything over sixty miles a day was 

 considered ' a severe trespass on their powers.' These facts are 

 mentioned in order to explain that the general feeling during the 

 eighteenth century was in the direction of excessive work, the racing 

 especially being of a most punishing character. When Watt, who 

 presumably knew nothing of horses, was determining the working 

 power of his engine, he adopted a standard known as ' horse 

 power,' which has ever since been misleading. He found that a 



* ' The Obligation and Extent of Humanity to Brutes,' 1839. 



f In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1825 it is stated that a stage-coach- 

 man admitted to having killed fifty horses in one year from overdriving. 



X ' Analysis of Horsemanship,' Adams. 



§ A ' New Treatise on the Method of Breeding, Breaking, and Training 

 Horses.' 



|| ' History and Delineation of the Horse.' 



641 41 



