206 ON THE REARING 



anxious and exhausting conditions. I had, 

 perhaps incautiously, ridden into the place, 

 a large park-like enclosure of many acres, 

 where the foal was running with her dam, 

 the old hlack coh, and a lot of others 

 which did not belong to us, on a smart 

 little bay cob mare but lately broken to 

 saddle. Dismounting to look for the brood 

 mare and foal with my field glasses, the 

 bay cob broke awaj^, and there was a 

 stampede of all the horses in the place. 

 Singling out the brood mare, of which 

 she had always been rather jealous, the 

 wicked little brute - went for her like 

 a fury, and a regular duel with their 

 heels ensued, the two mares backing, 

 squealing, and flinging, while the thuds, 

 as one or the other landed, resounded through 

 the field. The black cob, fast and clever 

 in his day, but now pretty stiff, who was 

 chaperoning the party, at once joined in the 

 fray, and getting between the combatants 



