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CHAPTER XVIII.

THE LADY'S HORSE—MUST NOT BE EXPOSED TO STUMBLING—LIGHT TIPS WILL WEAR AS LONG AS HEAVY SHOES—HORSES AS HACKS FOR ELDERLY GENTLEMEN—PARK HACKS—CARRIAGE HORSES—ABNORMAL ACTION AND GRACEFUL ACTION—CONCUSSION THROUGH THE IRON SHOE—BEARING REIN FOR ‘SCREWS’—IT ‘PULLS THEM TOGETHER’—CRUELTY THEREOF—‘DOCKING’ A HORSE'S TAIL IS VIVISECTION—‘CUTTING’ CAUSED BY SHOEING—CRUEL MODE OF CURE AT PRESENT EMPLOYED—COACHMEN.

Equal to the hunter in value is the lady’s horse. In the ‘Book of the Horse,’ we find it said of him: ‘He should be free from the slightest suspicion of unsoundness in feet and forelegs, or those tricks of stumbling which lead to falls.’ In an editorial article, the ‘Morning Advertiser’ has said: ‘There can be no doubt that to encase the foot of either man or beast in a hard, heavy, unyielding case or cincture is against every law of Nature. It is equally true that by so doing the delicacy of the foot is impaired, the sensitiveness injured, and, accordingly, the liability of the animal—let us say the horse—to stumble much increased.’ This being so, as it undeniably is, a lady’s horse should evidently be unshod. He would then possess further