attending a show of this character, as the good and 

 thoughtful housewives of the exhibitors will prepare 

 a spread large enough to feed an army. Several thou- 

 sand people often attend these shows, and they are 

 not only very enjoyable but instructive to the breed- 

 ers who attend. Classes are made and premiums 

 offered for pretty much everything, including stallions, 

 brood mares, sucklings, yearlings, two and three-year- 

 old colts, etc. When the master of ceremonies is ready, 

 the judges enter the ring and class after class is brought 

 in and exhibited, and it will surprise a novice to see 

 how fast some of these colts can pace. Seated upon a 

 running or pacing horse the attendant will take the 

 reins attached to the colt's bitting harness and away 

 they will fly, the colt pacing up to the saddler's head. 

 This manner of exhibiting speed is observed with the 

 different colt classes, and when everything any one 

 desires to enter has been exhibited and passed upon by 

 the judges, the crowd disperses to assemble again in a 

 few days at some neighboring village, where the same 

 ceremony is repeated, and at these miniature fairs is 

 commenced the career of some of the great horses the 

 State sends out to the racing world. 



Fox hunting is a custom common to most of the South- 

 ern States, and I know of no sport more enjoyable or 

 exhilarating, not even an exciting horse race ; and I 

 have spent many happy hours in this enjoyable pas- 

 time. Many of the prominent residents of these States 

 own packs of hounds, and when a fox hunt is desired, 

 frequently several neighbors will assemble together, 

 when the host will produce a fox-horn, blow a blast or 

 two, and the hounds will come running and baying 

 from all directions, ready and eager for the chase. 

 Then, mounted on saddle horses, the hunters with the 



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