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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

-that animals thus marked generally possess peculiar powers of endurance; and rat-tailed ones, though ugly, prove very serviceablo.

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 ridinghorse, 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.*

*The extremes of various bad positions of the head when the bit is put in operation are-the throwing up the nose horizontal with the forehead, a trick denominated "stargazing," at which ewenecked horses are very ready, and getting the bit up to the angles of the jaws. Such a horse can easily run away, and cannot be commanded without a martingal. Another bad point is when the animal leans his jaw firmly against the bit, and, placing his head

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Respecting soundness, though feeling fully competent myself to judge of the matter, I consider the halfguinea 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 threequarter or thoroughbred 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 between his fore legs, the neck being over-arched, goes were he pleases such is called by horsemen "a borer."

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