RIDING RECOLLECTIONS 



up your mind, however mean the quarters, it is 

 better for him to stay there all night than in his 

 exhausted condition to be forced back to his own 

 stable. With thorough ventilation and plenty of 

 coverings, old sacks, blankets, whatever you can 

 lay hands on, he will take no harm. Indeed, if 

 you can keep up his circulation, there is no better 

 restorative than the pure cold air that in a cow- 

 shed, or out-house, finds free admission, to fill his 

 lungs. 



You will lose your dinner, perhaps. What 

 matter ? You may even have to sleep out in 

 '"the worst inn's worst room," unfed, unwashed, 

 and without a change of clothes. It is no such 

 penance after all, and surely your first duty is to 

 the ofallant, grenerous animal that would never fail 

 you at your need, but would gallop till his heart 

 broke, for your mere amusement and caprice. 



Of all our relations with the dumb creation, 

 there is none in which man has so entirely the 

 best of it as the one-sided partnership that exists 

 between the horse and his rider. 



192 



