CARRIAGE HORSES AND’ COBS. 203 
back being admirably adapted for the display of trap- 
pings and caparisons; and he is a source of wealth to 
fashionable dealers. A small “blocky ” horse with a 
rather pretty head, weak legs perhaps, and no speed, 
will go a-begging in the country for $125 or $150; 
but in the hands of the city dealer, clipped, docked, 
and hogged, he easily brings $250 or $300. He is 
no longer a “little horse,” but a “cob.” 
The modern fashion of using cobs and small horses 
generally for carriage purposes is an improvement in 
several ways, and chiefly because it is more humane; 
the wear and tear of their feet upon the pavements 
being considerably less than it is in the case of a large 
horse. Formerly the London job-masters had no 
horses in their stables under sixteen hands high; now 
they have many, chiefly for single brougham use, from 
fifteen hands upward, and the same tendency prevails 
in this country. In fact, the use of small carriage 
horses followed the introduction of those less bulky 
and lighter vehicles that are due chiefly to the skill and 
originality of American builders; but it is doubtful if 
heavy carriages, even, are not drawn more easily, as a 
rule, by horses that weigh from nine hundred to ten. 
hundred than by those that weigh from ten hundred 
to twelve hundred pounds. Such, I have found, is the 
common opinion of American horsemen, and such 
seems to be the experience of English coach drivers. 
“Tn these days,” writes the Duke of Beaufort, 
“when the road coaches only carry passengers, and no 
luggage to speak of, even if there is any at all, we 
should prefer, for all sorts of roads, short-stepping 
and small, though thick horses. They are infinitely 
pleasanter to drive. Anybody who has had the ex- 
