124 
OUR WORKING HORSES. 
good short-legged, compact horses, and would make excellent general 
utility animals. 
Foreigners Another thing that strikes anyone visiting these stables 
is the large number of “ Yankees ”, a name which in¬ 
cludes any horses imported from the American continent. You meet 
them in every stable, though it is difficult to get an unprejudiced opinion 
as to their merits. Some foremen averred that “ they could not do with 
them at any price,"that they were soft, and not too sound, and altogether 
inferior to the native article. In the largest tram stud in London about 
40 % of the horses are admitted to be foreigners, and no complaints were 
made. They are rather better looking than our home-bred horses of the 
same class, and though I would fain not to believe it, are, when 
acclimatised, equally useful. Their legs and feet seem as good, and 
they are rather more free from those curses of heavy horses—sidebones 
and ringbones. I hope and believe that the best English or Irish 
horse, whether thoroughbred or cart, is the best in the world, and 
that our colonies and foreign countries will continue to come to us for 
stallions and brood mares, as they do for breeding stock of other 
kinds. There would seem to be something in the climate of these 
islands favourable to the breeding of the best; but there is no reason 
for shutting our eyes to the good average results attained by others, 
results largely due to greater care in selection of sound parents, and 
partly, no doubt, to the advantages of fresh pasture, and boundless 
space. Our farmers are often too careless in choosing both sire and 
dam, putting the cheapest stallion they can get to a worn out or un¬ 
sound mare. Land here too is frequently, though unavoidably, over 
horsed, than which nothing is worse for successful breeding, as an ex¬ 
perienced breeder. Sir Walter Gilbey, has often pointed out. One 
thing is certain, importers on a large scale can land good sound useful 
horses at about £25 a head, which is far less than the British farmer 
can afford to sell them at. 
The temper of these “ foreigners ” is supposed to be more uncertain 
than that of their English cousins, but of this I have had little or no 
experience. 
It would surprise many of our drivers to see the number of horses 
to be cleaned and fed by one man. As a rule the stables are divided 
into lots of ten or twelve horses entirely looked after by one stable¬ 
man. He is well paid, earning from twenty-four to thirty shillings a 
week, but he must have a hard day's work to do his horses properly ; 
yet most of those in the tram and bus stables, looked clean and well, 
and in many instances I ran my hand through their coat without find¬ 
ing the least trace of scurf, and should be quite satisfied were my 
troop horses equally clean. The stables, (I am still referring to those 
of the bus and tram companies) were on the whole kept clean, sweet, 
and well ventilated. The best are those containing only twelve horses, 
six stalls each side. These are preferable to larger ones, in which 
case the horses next to the door have to have too much ventilation 
especially in windy weather, and those in the centre do not get enough. 
