A French Haras and Horse Fair. 
389 
ing manner. The collai' shank, said by the Directeur to be made 
by the grooms, is of several pieces of leather doubled and sewn 
into two iron rings ; the whole length of the collar shank is 
about or over two feet ; one ring takes the collar billet, the other 
ring near the manger end takes the end of the shank, which is 
thickened with a leather pad to fit the slot, and sewn round a 
barrel button, or toggle of hard wood such as those on signal 
halyards. The toggle is passed vertically through the slot and 
turned horizontally, thus effectually securing the horse, allowing 
in the most simple and safe manner the usual freedom, together 
with the absence of all noise, and absolute ease, in case of fire or 
other necessity, in setting the cast or struggling horse at imme- 
diate liberty. The experience at Lamballe is altogether in favour 
of this simple arrangement. 
The horses are said, one with another, to cost the administra- 
tion 120^., and all charges included IGOl. a year. This would make 
the annual cost of the whole establishment 32,000Z. a year. The 
ration I understood to be : — 
Hay 4 liilo3 
Straw )> 
Corn (oats) 5 » 
This is more than the cavalry allowance, which is :■ — 
Haj, 3 kilos, = about 7 lbs. 
Straw, 5 kilos, = about 12 „ 
Corn, 4'20 kilos, = about 10 „ 
All the stable-forks are of wood ; steel is considered dan- 
gerous. The grooming, considering the object, was good, not a 
stain to be seen on any one of the many white horses. The 
horses were all in fresh condition and appeared healthy. I only 
noticed one case of a starey coat ; there were three cases of an 
affection of the legs resembling mud-fever, but which I took to 
be of a greasy nature. 
Here may be seen sires, and sons, and grandsons, but the 
sequence is not invariably in the direction of an encouraging 
improvement. In the streets, and about everywhere during our 
tour in and round Brittany, we were on the look-out, but I am 
bound to say we did not see the workaday horses stamped in 
legible characters " Transformation of Type." This may be 
that the best stock leave the country through the many horse- 
fairs and markets ; any way, the fact remains, except a few at 
the Dinard Races and about Dinard, I have seen few native- 
bred horses of improved stamp. The infantry officers' chargers 
at Dinan were a poor scratch lot, Bai'bs, weeds, and cart-horses ; 
the regimental train horses that I saw after the manoeuvres 
