56 NOVEL LESSON FOR WEIGHT CARRIERS. 



to put them on the pillar reins, and let thein stand 

 with their saddle loaded with two hnndred and a 

 quarter of sheets of lead : he there kept them for a 

 couple of hours, more or less. Thank God! my 

 weight never occasioned my practising this (to me) 

 new mode of training ; but I suppose it answered ; at 

 all events, he was always well carried, and his horses 

 always looked well. 



I have several friends who ride great weights : they 

 frequently pay me the compliment of asking my opi- 

 nion of horses, and further ask whether I think such 

 a horse can carry them. If he happens to be a kind 

 of half cart-bred beast, alias a cob, that is, a quadruped 

 all flesh and hair, I merely say I should think the 

 wretch could not can^y anything but a pair of panniers, 

 and those badly : if, on the contrary, it is an active 

 well-bred one, I say, I have no intuitive faculty of 

 discerning strength ; " get up and try : " and this is 

 the only sure way of testing a horse's powers. 



I am never (among my various follies) so arrogant 

 or so weak as to expect any one to be guided by my 

 opinions unless I can back them by some proofs of 

 their correctness in particular cases. Now I do fear- 

 lessly give it as my opinion, that, allowing a proper 

 latitude for the appropriateness of it, we can never 

 positively judge a horse's powers till we try them, and 

 I shall trouble my readers with more than one proof 

 of this. I could produce many. 



In a town where I lived some four years since, 

 namely, the same where our great agricultural friend 

 was trying the dealer's nag, I observed another heavy 

 weight, but comparatively a feather, for he was not 

 more than about 17st. I constantly saw him riding 

 a light thorough-bred looking mare, one of that sort 



