ON THE WILLINGNESS OF HOUSES FOR WORK. 205 
the commencement of the campaign, and which has been usually 
called founder • in books of farriery, had entirely disappeared. I 
do not remember any instance of it during the retreat. 
At some future time I may, perhaps, revert to this interesting 
period, as connected with the important subject of shoeing; at 
present I have done—“ a tale should never be too long.” 
ON THE WILLINGNESS OF HORSES FOR WORK. 
By Mr, Kerr, V, S. Southampton; latelL E, I. C. Service. 
Gentlemen,—I beg to Offer, through the medium of your 
valuable journal, a few hints on a subject which I humbly con¬ 
ceive to be of great importance in the purchasing of horses, and 
the non-observance of which frequently produces considerable 
astonishment, mortification, and loss—the willingness of horses 
for labour. 
Sportsmen, agriculturists, and every individual who has occa¬ 
sion for the use of the horse, either for pleasure or business, must, 
I doubt not, have met with innumerable disappointments in their 
purchases. A gentleman is in want of a hunter; he applies to a 
dealer; many horses are shown to him, and he makes choice of 
one sixteen hands high, three parts bred, light head and neck, an 
oblique and deep shoulder, an excellent middle piece, fine length 
of quarter, and capital fore-legs; in fact, with every apparent ex¬ 
ternal qualification for speed, strength, and the purpose for which 
he is required: he is examined, and found sound; he willingly 
pays seventy or eighty guineas for him, and exclaims, “ At last I 
have a perfect horse.” He hunts him ; but what is his mortifica¬ 
tion to find, after the first burst is over, that the animal has no 
“courage he seems no longer to experience delight in going. 
To increase his mortification, he is passed, in spite of him, by a 
horse not half his weight, with a heavier burden on his back. This 
“ cat of a thing” has his head and tail erect, his eyes darting 
fire, his nostrils distended, and the rider heated to a fever in 
pulling and sawing at the lacerated mouth of this noble and 
generous creature going to his very utmost, if permitted; and go 
he would until he fell. I do not suppose that the animal dis¬ 
tresses himself for the rider's gratification; the cause is of that 
nature that the animal himself cannot controul : it exists in 
proportion to the excitability of that part of the brain and ner¬ 
vous system which influences the muscles of locomotion. 
I am fully aware that this picture does not exist so frequently 
in the hunter as in the single harnessed horse or hack ; and for 
this reason—if there are two inducements greater than others to 
