ROAD HORSES. 115 
are rare, — much more so now, in proportion to the to- 
tal number of our horses, than they were twenty-five 
years ago, or before the war; the reason being that 
the craze for fast trotters has thrown the roadster into 
the shade. Of course, almost any sound horse can be 
urged and whipped over the ground, “driven off his 
feed,” perhaps, and so travel these distances in the 
time mentioned. Nothing is more common than for 
some broken-down animal to be pointed out by his 
cruel and mendacious master as one for whom ten or 
twelve miles an hour is only a sort of exercising gait; 
the poor beast having very likely been ruined in the 
effort to accomplish some such feat which was beyond 
his capacity. The mere fact that a horse has gone a 
long way in a short time tells little about his powers; 
the more important inquiry is, What was his condi- 
tion afterward? A liveryman in Vermont declared 
not long ago, that at one time and another he had lost 
twelve hundred dollars’ worth of horseflesh through 
the ignorant and murderous driving of customers 
who had endeavored to keep up with a certain gray 
mare, of extraordinary endurance, that was owned in 
his vicinity for several years. 
A horse that will step off cheerfully and readily 
eight miles an hour, a pace so moderate that one never 
sees it mentioned in an advertisement, is much better 
than the average; one that will do ten miles in that 
time and in the same way is an exceptionally good 
roadster; and the horse that goes twelve miles an 
hour with ease is extremely rare. A stable-keeper in 
Boston, of long experience, tells me that he has known 
but two horses that would travel at this last-men- 
tioned rate with comfort to themselves and the driver, 
