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COACH-HORSE, _s._ A horse used for coaches.
This animal has fully shared in the progress of improvement, and is as
different from what he was fifty years ago as it is possible to
conceive. The clumsy-barrelled, cloddy-shouldered, round-legged, black
family horse, neither a coach nor a dray-horse, but something between
both, as fat as an ox, and, with all his pride and prancing at first
starting, not equal to more than six miles an hour, and knocking-up with
one hard day’s work, is no more seen; and we have, instead of him, an
animal as tall, deep-chested, rising in the withers, slanting in the
shoulders, flat in the legs, with even more strength, and with treble
the speed.
There is a great deal of deception, however, even in the best of these
improved coach-horses. They prance it nobly through the streets; and
they have more work in them than the old clumsy, sluggish breed; but
they have not the endurance that could be wished; and a pair of poor
post-horses would, at the end of the second day, beat them hollow.
The knee-action, and high lifting of the feet, in the carriage-horse is
deemed an excellence, because it adds to the grandeur of his appearance;
but, as has already been stated, it is necessarily accompanied by much
wear and tear of the legs and feet, and this is very soon apparent.
The principal points in the coach-horse are substance well placed, a
deep and well-proportioned body, bone under the knee, and sound, open,
tough feet.
The origin of the better kind of coach-horse is the Cleveland-bay,
confined principally to Yorkshire and Durham, with, perhaps,
Lincolnshire on one side, and Northumberland on the other, but difficult
to meet with pure in either county. The Cleveland mare is crossed by a
three-fourth, or thoroughbred horse of sufficient substance and height,
and the produce is the coach-horse most in repute, with his arched crest
and high action. From the thorough-bred of sufficient height, but not of
so much substance, we obtain the four-in-hand, and superior
curricle-horse.
From less height and more substance, we have the hunter and better sort
of hackney; and, from the half-bred, we derive the machiner, the poster,
and the common carriage-horse; indeed, Cleveland, and the Vale of
Pickering, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, may be considered as the
most decided breeding country in England for coach-horses, hunters, and
hackneys. The coach-horse is nothing more than a tall, strong,
over-sized hunter. The hackney has many of the qualities of the hunter
on a small scale.
How far we are carrying supposed improvement too far, and sacrificing
strength and usefulness to speed, is a question not difficult to
resolve. The rage for rapid travelling is the bane of the post-master,
the destruction of the horse, and a disgrace to the English character.
There is no truth so easily proved, or so painfully felt by the
post-master, at least in his pocket, as that it is the pace that kills.
A horse at a dead pull, or at the beginning of his pull, is enabled, by
the force of his muscles, to throw a certain weight into the collar. If
he walk four miles in the hour, some part of that muscular energy must
be expended in the act of walking; and, consequently, the power of
drawing must be proportionally diminished. If he trot eight miles in the
hour, more animal power is expended in the trot, and less remains for
the draught; but the draught continues the same, and, to enable him to
accomplish his work, he must tax his energies to a degree that is cruel
in itself, and that must speedily wear him out.
Let it be supposed—what every horse cannot accomplish—that he shall be
able, by fair exertion and without distress, to throw, at a dead pull, a
weight into his collar, or exert a force equal to two hundred and
sixteen pounds; or, in other words, let him be able to draw a load which
requires a force of two hundred and sixteen pounds to move. Let him next
walk at the rate of four miles in an hour; what force will he then be
able to employ? We have taken away some to assist him in walking, and we
have left him only ninety-six pounds, being not half of that which he
could exert when he began his pull. He shall quicken his pace to six
miles an hour—more energy must be exerted to carry him over this
additional ground. How much has he remaining to apply to the weight
behind him? Fifty-four pounds only. We will make the six miles an hour
ten; for it seems now to be the fashion for the fast coach, and for
almost every coach, and every vehicle to attempt this pace. How stands
the account with the poor beast? We have left him a power equal to
thirty-two pounds only to be employed for the purpose of draught.
The load which a horse can draw is about fifteen times greater than the
power exerted, supposing the road to be hard and level, and the carriage
to run with little friction; and the horse, which at starting, can throw
into the collar a weight or force equal to two hundred and sixteen
pounds, will draw a load of three thousand two hundred. Let him,
however, be urged on at the rate of ten miles in the hour—deduct the
power used in swiftness of pace from the sum total of that which he
possesses, and what remains? not a sixth part—not that which is equal to
a quarter of a ton—or, if it be a stage-coach, the energy exerted in
draught by the four horses will not be equal to a ton.
The coach, and its passengers and its luggage, weigh more than this, and
the whole is still drawn on, and must be so. Whence comes the power?
From the over-strained exertion, the injury, the torture, the
destruction of the horse. That which is true of the coach-horse, is
equally true of every other. Let each reader apply it to his own animal,
and act as humanity and interest dictate.
Many a horse used on our public roads is unable to throw all his natural
power or weight into the collar. He is tender-footed—lame; but he is
bought at little price, and he is worked on the brutal and abominable
principle, that he may be “whipped sound.” And so apparently he is. At
first he sadly halts; but, urged by the torture of the lash, he acquires
a peculiar habit of going. The faulty limb appears to keep pace with the
others, but no stress or labour is thrown upon it, and he gradually
contrives to make the sound limbs perform among them all the duties of
the unsound one; and thus he is barbarously “whipped sound,” and cruelty
is undeservedly rewarded. After all, however, what has been done? Three
legs are made to do that which was almost too hard a task for four. Then
they must be most injuriously strained, and soon worn out, and the
general power of the animal must be rapidly exhausted, and, at no great
distance of time, exhaustion and death release him from his merciless
persecutors.
It is said that between Glasgow and Edinburgh, a carrier in a single
horse-cart, weighing about seven hundred weight, will take a load of a
ton, and at the rate of twenty-two miles in a day. The Normandy carriers
travel with a team of four horses, and from fourteen to twenty-two miles
in a day, with a load of ninety hundred weight.
An unparalleled instance of the power of a horse when assisted by art,
was shown near Croydon. The Surrey iron rail-way being completed, a
wager was laid by two gentlemen, that a common horse could draw
thirty-six tons for six miles along the road, and that he should draw
his weight from a dead pull, as well as turn it round the occasional
windings of the road. A numerous party of gentlemen assembled near
Merstham to see this extraordinary triumph of art. Twelve wagons loaded
with stones, each wagon weighing above three tons, were chained
together, and a horse, taken promiscuously from the timber cart of Mr.
Harwood, was yoked to the train. He started from the Fox public-house,
near Merstham, and drew the immense chain of wagons, with apparent ease,
almost to the turnpike at Croydon, a distance of six miles, in one hour
and forty-one minutes, which is nearly at the rate of four miles an
hour. In the course of the journey he stopped four times, to show that
it was not by any advantage of descent that this power was acquired; and
after each stoppage he again drew off the chain of wagons with great
ease. Mr. Banks, who had wagered on the power of the horse, then desired
that four more loaded wagons should be added to the cavalcade, with
which the same horse set off again with undiminished pace. Still further
to show the effect of the rail-way in facilitating motion, he directed
the attending workmen, to the number of fifty, to mount on the wagons,
and the horse proceeded without the least distress; and, in truth, there
appeared to be scarcely any limitation to the power of his draught.
After this trial the wagons were taken to the weighing-machine, and it
appeared that the whole weight was as follows:—
TON. CWT. QR.
12 Wagons first linked together 38 4 2
4 Ditto, afterwards attached 13 2 0
Supposed weight of 50 labourers 4 0 0
——————————————
55 6 2
—_The Horse._
FERRET, _s._ A small animal of prey.
The ferret has a longer and thinner body, a narrower head, and a sharper
snout than the polecat. It has not the same sagacity in providing its
subsistence, and unless taken care of and nourished in the house, it
cannot even exist, at least in our climates, for those which have been
lost in the burrows of rabbits have never multiplied, but most probably
perished by the severity of the winter. The ferret also, like other
domesticated animals, varies in colour, and is as common in hot
countries as the polecat is scarce. The female is conspicuously smaller
than the male; and when in season, Gesner says, she has even been known
to die if her desires were not gratified. They are reared in casks or
chests, where it is usual to furnish them with beds of flax. They sleep
most perpetually, but no sooner are they awake than they eagerly seek
for food, which consists of bran, bread, milk, &c. The females bring
forth twice a year, and go six weeks with their young. Some of them eat
their young almost as soon as they are brought forth, are immediately in
season again, and then have three litters in the year, each of which
consists of from five to nine.
This animal is by nature a mortal enemy to the rabbit. If even a dead
one is presented to a young ferret, although he have never seen a rabbit
before, he flies at and tears it with fury: but if it be alive, he
seizes it by the nose or throat, and sucks its blood. When let into the
burrows of rabbits, it is necessary to muzzle him, that he may not kill
them in their holes, but only oblige them to run out, that they may be
entrapped in the nets; besides, if he is suffered to go in unmuzzled,
there is great danger of his being lost; for having sucked the blood of
the rabbit, he will fall asleep; and smoking the hole is not always a
successful expedient to bring him back, because as the burrows
frequently communicate with each other, he is apt to be the more
bewildered the more he is surrounded with smoke. The ferret is also made
use of by boys, in searching for birds’ nests in the holes of walls or
trees.
Strabo says, the ferret was brought from Africa into Spain; which does
not appear void of foundation, as Spain is the native climate of
rabbits, and the country where formerly these animals most abounded. It
is probable, therefore, that the rabbits having increased so much as to
become incommodious, the ferret was introduced to diminish them, instead
of encouraging the race of polecats, from which no advantage could have
accrued but the death of the rabbit, whereas by the ferret some benefit
is obtained by the hunter. The ferret, though easily tamed and rendered
docile, is exceedingly irascible; he has always an ill smell, but more
so when heated or irritated. He has lively but inflamed eyes; all his
movements are quick, and is besides so strong, that he will easily
master a rabbit three or four times as big as himself.—_Buffon._