SELECTING.
In selecting an animal, the character of the work for which he is required should be taken into consideration. For example, in choosing a hack, you will consider whether he is for riding or for draught. In choosing a hunter, you must bear in mind the peculiar nature of the country he will have to contend with.
A horse should at all times have sufficient size and power for the weight he has to move. It is an act of cruelty to put a small horse, be his courage and breeding ever so good, to carry a heavy man or draw a heavy load. With regard to colour, some sportsmen say, and with truth, that “a good horse can’t be a bad colour, no matter what his shade.” Objection may, however, be reasonably made to pie-balls, skew-balls, or cream-colour, as being too conspicuous,—moreover, first-class animals of these shades are rare; nor are the roan or mouse-coloured ones as much prized as they should be.
Bay, brown, or dark chestnuts,[4] black or grey horses, are about the most successful competitors in the market, and may be preferred in the order in which they are here enumerated. Very light chestnut, bay, and white horses are said to be irritable in temper and delicate in constitution.[5]
Mares are objected to by some as being occasionally uncertain in temper and vigour, and at times unsafe in harness, from constitutional irritation. More importance is attached to these assumed drawbacks than they deserve; and though the price of the male is generally from one-fourth to one-sixth more than that of the female, the latter will be found to get through ordinary work quite as well as the former.
To judge of the Age by the Teeth.—The permanent nippers, or front teeth, in the lower jaw, are six. The two front teeth are cut and placed at from two to three years of age; the next pair, at each side of the middle ones, at from three and a half to four; and the corner pair between four and a half and five years of age, when the tusks in the male are also produced.
The marks or cavities in these nippers are effaced in the following order:—At six years old they are worn out in the two centre teeth, at seven in the next pair, and at eight in the corner ones, when the horse is described as “aged.”
After this, as age advances, these nippers appear to change gradually year by year from an oval to a more detached and triangular form, till at twenty their appearance is completely triangular. After six the tusks become each year more blunt, and the grooves, which at that age are visible inside, gradually wear out.
The Hack to Ride.—A horse with a small well-shaped head seldom proves to be a bad one; therefore such, with small fine ears, should be sought in the first instance.
It is particularly desirable that the shoulder of a riding hack should be light and well-placed. A high-withered horse is by no means the best for that purpose. Let the shoulder-blades be well slanted as the horse stands, their points light in front towards the chest. Nor should there be too wide a front; for such width, though well enough for draught, is not necessary in a riding-horse, provided the chest and girth be deep.
As a matter of course the animal should be otherwise well formed, with rather long pasterns (before but not behind),—the length of which increases the elasticity of his movement on hard roads. His action should be independent and high, bending the knees. If he cannot walk well—in fact, with action so light that, as the dealers say, “he’d hardly break an egg if he trod on it”—raising his legs briskly off the ground, when simply led by the halter (giving him his head)—in other words, if he walks “close to the ground”—he should be at once rejected.
With regard to the other paces, different riders have different fancies: the trot and walk I consider to be the only important paces for a gentleman’s ordinary riding-horse. It is very material, in selecting a riding-horse, to observe how he holds his head in his various paces; and to judge of this the intending purchaser should remark closely how he works on the bit when ridden by the rough-rider, and he should also pay particular attention to this point when he is himself on his back, before selection is made.[6]
THE HACK
Respecting soundness, though feeling fully competent myself to judge of the matter, I consider the half-guinea fee to a veterinary surgeon well-laid-out money, to obtain his professional opinion and a certificate of the state of an animal, when purchasing a horse of any value.
The Hack for Draught ought to be as well formed as the one just described; but a much heavier shoulder and forehand altogether are admissible.
No one should ever for a moment think of putting any harness-horse into a private vehicle, no matter what his seller’s recommendation, without first having him out in a single or double break, as the case may be, and seeing him driven, as well as driving him himself, to make acquaintance with the animal—in fact, to find him out.
The Hunter, like the hack, should be particularly well-formed before the saddle. He should be deep in the girth, strong in the loins, with full development of thigh, short and flat in the canon joint from the knee to the pastern, with large flat hocks and sound fore legs. This animal, like the road-horse, should lift his feet clear of the ground and walk independently, with evidence of great propelling power in the hind legs when put into a canter or gallop.
A differently-shaped animal is required for each kind of country over which his rider has to be carried. In the midland counties and Yorkshire, the large three-quarter or thorough-bred horse only will be found to have pace and strength enough to keep his place. In close countries, such as the south, south-west, and part of the north of England, a plainer-bred and closer-set animal does best.
In countries where the fences are height jumps—a constant succession of timber, or stone walls—one must look for a certain angularity of hip, not so handsome in appearance, but giving greater leverage to lift the hind legs over that description of fence.
A hunter should be all action; for if the rider finds he can be carried safely across country, he will necessarily have more confidence, and go straighter, not therefore requiring so much pace to make up for round-about “gating” gaps and “craning.”[7]