30 INCREASING OUR SUPPLIES OP CAVALRY HORSES. 
neighbours thus bred, they might diminish their number by 
one-third without impairing their real strength. The old- 
fashioned prejudice that because a horse is fit for a higher 
occupation than drawing the plough, therefore he is not fit 
for that, is deeply-rooted over a large portion of the king- 
dom ; but it must yield at last to the force of truth, and 
ocular demonstration of the contrary. Or take the case of a 
mare of somewhat inferior grade — such, for instance, as the 
farmer drives in his trap, or the tradesman in his light cart ; 
what useful and valuable horses might we not expect from 
their union with a thorough-bred horse ? It is from animals 
so bred, that horses for almost any conceivable purpose are 
furnished. According to individual peculiarities exhibited 
by each, will one colt make a hunter, another a light or 
heavy jeavalry-horse, another a hack, or another still a 
brougham or cabriolet horse. In one, power may predomi- 
nate ; in another, action ; of some, their figure may be the 
chief recommendation ; w r hile a fortunate few w T ill possess all 
three in due and happy combination. These are the high- 
priced hunters or the guardsman’s chargers. 
Of mares more highly bred than the tw T o classes I have 
alluded to, I shall not here speak, since they are certain, if 
used for stud purposes at all, to be put to thorough-bred horses. 
I w ish to impress upon agriculturists, and to induce landowners 
to impress upon their tenants, the expediency, under present 
circumstances, almost amounting to a duty, of providing an 
increased supply of horses available for the military service of 
their country. The course which I recommend is one, which, 
so far from causing them extra expense, will, if properly 
carried out, bring them in as large a share of profit as the 
rearing of any other kind of stock. The real state of the case 
is this : — In every district there are to be found numerous 
mares with abundant strength, and with many other good 
points, but wanting that one quality (without w 7 hich the 
horse ever remains the pariah of his tribe), viz., the power to 
move with speed and ease. Put such mares to a stallion no 
better bred than themselves, and you perpetuate the dis- 
qualification in their offspring. Such is the parentage of the 
hundreds of low-priced brutes w hich disfigure our fields, and 
are a drug in our fairs. It seems as though some evil- 
disposed enchanter had cast his spell upon them, and con- 
demned them for the term of their existence to the slavery of 
the higgler’s cart, since for lighter labour they are utterly 
unfit. No effort of their own, no external persuasion, could 
take them over four miles in half an hour. A horse which 
cannot on a pinch do thus much is worthless indeed. But 
