202 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
ambiguous that many stanch horsemen exclude it 
from their categories. Generally speaking, any small- 
ish, chunky horse, especially if his tail be cut short, is 
a cob. The modern hackney usually stands a little 
too high to be called a cob. The old Morgan horse 
—of the small type—was a perfect cob, powerful, 
speedy, docile, enduring, and possessed of great style. 
He was a saddle as well as a harness cob. The Mor- 
gan race has lately been revived, largely with the 
object of using it as a trotting cross. This purpose 
is a laudable one, and yet the Morgan cob should also 
be preserved. 
Not long since, in a small New England village, I 
came by chance upon a perfect specimen of this 
variety. It was a little bay mare, with a rather long 
body and round barrel. She stood on short legs, and 
must have been less than fifteen hands high, but she 
had the strength, in all the moving parts, of a sixteen- 
hand horse. Her neck was thick but not coarse, her 
head small and Arabian in shape, with fine, aristo- 
cratic, intelligent ears, and an eye flashing with spirit 
and courage. She was nineteen years old when I saw 
her, and hollow-backed, but still so spirited as to re- 
quire a man’s hand upon the reins. <A cob of this 
kind is capable of an immense amount of work, and 
will perform it upon half the food required by a big 
horse. 
The ordinary cob is fat and faint-hearted, well fitted 
to draw a village cart gently about a village, but likely 
to go to pieces if put to any severe task. He has the 
bulkiness of a small cart horse, but lacks the nervous 
energy needed to make him a good roadster or a good 
saddle horse. He shines at horse shows, his broad 
