[68] A singular evidence of the influence of example was furnished by a favourite charger belonging to the father of the present Lord G——d. As a reward for gallant service, she had been turned out for life, when only seven years old, on the banks of the Shannon. She had a shed to run into, and plenty of hay in winter. It pleased her, in all seasons, daily to have a swim in the river. Year after year colts were turned out on the same grass. All these, following the example set them by the mare, voluntarily took to the water, and gradually became expert swimmers. Until within a short time of her death, and she attained the unusual age of forty-three, she continued to bathe; and I have heard that she was evidently much puzzled and vexed whenever from the stream being frozen she could not get her plunge. She would walk a little way on the ice, but finding it too slippery, unwillingly return.

[69] The continuation of the vertebræ of the back, and clearly, therefore, an indication of their substance. Query—Was it because our grandfathers knew that a tail naturally short was a pledge of stamina, that they endeavoured to imitate it by docking their horses and pointers? Curiously enough, the points named in [364] as desirable in a dog are considered good in a horse. In portraits of the useful old English hunter, you never see a feeble, flexible neck,—it is desirable that it should be arched,—a dog’s neck also should be sufficiently strong, and put on high. Neither horse nor dog should have large fleshy heads,—and a full bright eye is in both a sign of spirit and endurance. The canon bone in a horse should be short, so ought the corresponding bone of a dog’s leg; and every joint ought to be large, yet clean; and (without a bull) the short ribs in both animals should be long. There are hardy horses whose flesh you cannot bring down without an amount of work that is injurious to their legs,—there are also thrifty dogs which are constantly too fat, unless they are almost starved, and common sense tells us they cannot be so starved without their strength being much reduced. The analogy does not hold with respect to ears, for it is generally considered that the dog’s should be soft and drooping, lying close to his head—not short and ever in motion. Moreover, most men would wish his muzzle to be broad as well as long.

Our eye is so accustomed to the sight of weeds,—animals bred for short-lived speed, not for endurance,—that we no longer look for, and possibly do not properly appreciate, the short back (though long body), with scarcely room for a saddle; and the width between the upper part of the shoulder-blades (as well as the lower)—the indication of space within—upon which points our forefathers justly set great value. We forget its being mentioned of Eclipse, whose endurance is as undeniable as his speed, that he had a “shoulder broad enough to carry a firkin of butter,”—and that Stubb’s portraits of winners (of races four and occasionally six miles long!) show that they possessed powerfully muscular, as well as slanting shoulders. The frame of a clever Welsh, or New Forest pony, if his head is set on at a considerable angle with his neck, is perfection. It might with profit be studied by any youngster wishing to form his eye, and know what, on an enlarged scale, should be the build of a real hunter,—an animal fitted for every kind of work. The Arabs so much prize a short back and lengthy quarters, that they have a proverb to the effect that a horse which measures the same from the hip-bone to the end of his croupe, that he does from the hip-bone to the withers, is a blessing to his master. Another assertion of theirs is, that all their fastest horses measure less from the middle of the withers to the setting on of the tail, than they do from the middle of the withers to the extremity of the nose, or rather extremity of the upper lip. This measurement is supposed to be taken along the crest of the neck, over the forelock, and between the eyes.

It is sometimes so difficult to get a horse into condition, and the following recipe, given me by an old cavalry officer who is an excellent stable-master, is so admirable, that I need not apologize for inserting it:—

“Give three{1} ounces of cold drawn linseed oil in a cold mash every alternate night for a fortnight. If you judge it advisable, repeat the same after an interval of a fortnight. The good effects of the oil are not immediately visible, but in about a month the horse’s coat will become glossy, and he will commence putting up good hard flesh.”

The daily rubbing in a portion of the following ointment into a horse’s hoof (especially after exercise in moist ground, and on removal of wet bandages, before any evaporation can take place,) will prevent, indeed cure, brittleness—that constant precursor of contracted feverish feet:—
Tar (not Coal Tar).
Soft Soap.
Soap Cerate.
Hog’s Lard.
½ lb. of each well mixed together over a very slow fire.

{1} 20 oz. = 1 imperial pint.

[70] Amidst sheep too.

[71] I am glad to say I never had occasion to adopt so severe a remedy as the following; but I have heard of an otherwise incorrigible taste for blood being cured by a partridge pierced transversely with two knitting-pins being adroitly substituted for the fallen bird which the dog had been restrained by a checkcord from bolting. The pins were cut to a length somewhat less than the diameter of its body, and were fixed at right angles to one another. Several slight wires would, I think, have answered better.

[72] And if hares are shot to him, fewest wounded hares.