26 THE HORSE 



parent from beginning to end. Do you know 

 why? I am glad to say, though well enough 

 acquainted with the other kind, that I have had 

 many such and am at present using every day a 

 certain mare, thoroughbred, who, when she came 

 into my possession, was so high-strung, so full of 

 nervous energy, that she had never been known to 

 walk a step, and for this reason was never used by 

 her owner or his family, but always exercised by 

 a groom. 



Under a little sane treatment (a matter of 

 which I shall have more to say later) she soon 

 learned to go quietly with me. But let the drive 

 be rather longer than common — say ten miles, in- 

 stead of her usual four or five — and the old spirit 

 and nervous ambition are all back again. And 

 if, on an all-day drive, her muscles become tired, 

 as they needs must, she does not know it and, if 

 I let her, would undoubtedly keep going till she 

 fell in her tracks. 



Now this quality, although we have, in breed- 

 ing, to consider many other things, such as size, 

 style, disposition, and the ability to haul a heavy 

 load, is of all equine attributes, the most kingly; 

 it is the spirit that never quits and never says die. 

 Without it, our race-horses would be valueless 

 and our roadsters no pleasure to use. It is easy 

 enough, and true enough, to say that it is owing to 



