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no single cause that so frequently brings horses down, as their being over weighted. A dull horse with scarcely a stone more than he is accustomed to bear, will turn sulky and careless; the rider becomes impatient and urges him to exertion; the usual pace of the horse is broken, and a fall is the natural result.

Closely allied to this suggestion is another of equal moment to consider well the nature of the work you require your horse to perform. I shall reserve what I have to say about the choice of horses for draught, for another chapter; but it is not out of place to notice here a very common error. There is not one horse in fifty that is adapted both for the saddle and for harness: I once had a galloway that rarely stumbled in harness, though he would not have carried the best rider, of feather weight, half a dozen miles without as many falls. Yet he was perfectly sound, and continued sound for five years that he remained in my possession.

To return from this digression; if the object is only a daily ride of half a dozen miles to and from the counting-house, any horse not over-weighted is, if sound, fully equal to the work; but if the distance materially exceeds ten or twelve miles a-day, it is by no means every horse that can perform it more especially if the rider is averse to

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frequent walking, or to a slow pace. Some gentlemen are fond of long rides, and will prefer the saddle to a stage, even for a journey of forty or fifty miles. After much observation, I am inclined to think that there are very few horses to be found, who are capable of carrying weight, without distress, for more than fifty miles in the course of a day; or to bear the repetition, even of this, in the course of the same week, without injury. At all events it is safer to estimate the powers of a horse at a much lower rate, and to consider thirty miles a good day's journey; and two such journeys as a fair week's work.

The last hint that I shall offer on this topic, is to decide, in the first instance, the limit in price; and having settled "the figure," to allow no horsedealing oratory to change the determination. I may observe that a horse, which is really good and exactly adapted to a man's purpose, is dear at no price; but it by no means follows that because a high price is asked or even refused, that the horse is worth it. Putting hunters and race-horses out of the question, a hundred guineas ought to buy the best hack in England: three-fourths of that price is more than the value of ninety-nine out of a hundred, with every advantage of strength and action; and fifty guineas should at any time pur

chase such a horse as a gentleman need not blush to own; but it may safely be assumed that all the horses advertised for sale at twenty and thirty pounds are aged, unsound, vicious, or in some way or other unsafe purchases for any man that has a reasonable respect for his own limbs.

I flatter myself that my reader by this time knows his own mind, and duly appreciates the importance of doing so, before he goes into the market; I will therefore proceed to introduce him to some of my horse-dealing acquaintance.

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IT is long since I have arrived at the settled conviction that it is very inexpedient to buy a horse from a gentleman, and downright folly to do so if that gentleman is your friend.

A gentleman will never sell a good horse if he can help it; if circumstances compel him to part with it, it may be reasonably assumed that the character of the horse is well known in his owner's immediate circle, and that he never would find his way into the public market.

Once, and once only, I broke through this rule; a gentleman had a very beautiful and apparently a valuable horse to sell. I was acquainted with the horse as well as with his owner. I knew that he had been in his possession for above a year, and I had reason to think that he would not have kept him a week if he were not a sound and serviceable animal.

He was offered to me for fifty guineas; the price was certainly moderate for a horse of such extraordinary appearance, and I promptly and thankfully accepted the offer. He was brought home in high condition, and I immediately set him to work. For about a week all went on well; I never was so gaily mounted in my life; I might have sold the horse ten times over for double the money, but I was too well pleased with my bargain.

At the expiration of a week my groom began to look crusty, and told me with a very long face that he must be ill, for he refused his corn. I desired him to wash out the manger. "I have done so, Sir, but it won't do."

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Perhaps the corn is musty?"

"It can't be that, Sir, for it only came in yesterday, and he won't touch the hay any more than the oats."

I tried him with the sweetest corn I could buy, and every variety of hay, but in vain; for three days he eat nothing. I sent him to the Veterinary College: his teeth were found to be sharp, and they were filed down; no other fault could be discovered; I took him home again, but feed he would not. I sent him to livery, thinking that my stables might possibly be in some way offensive to him. He remained at livery a week, and his

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