y hands and inches, not, as in
humans, by feet and inches. A hand is 4 in., therefore an animal of 15
hands is 5 ft. in height; 16 hands, 5 ft. 4 in.; 17 hands, 5 ft. 8 in.;
and one of 17-2--which would be a gigantic height in a saddle horse,
but not in a cart horse--would be 5 ft. 10 in. high. A woman of medium
height, like myself, who stands 5 ft. 3 in. in "stocking feet"--a
height, by-the-bye, which is accorded to the Venus de Medici (we might
make use of that fact on being termed "little")--would find a horse of
15-1 or 15-2 a very nice, useful height; though she need by no means
limit herself to height with any horse which is springy and active, does
not require a great amount of collecting, is easy in his paces, and has
a good mouth. The bigger a horse is, the more fatiguing do we find him
to ride, if his mouth, manners, and paces are not thoroughly "made." The
late Esa bin Curtis, a celebrated Arab horse dealer, in speaking of big
buck-jumping Walers, said, "God hath not made man equal unto them," and,
however well a woman may ride, it is no pleasure to find herself
breathless and exhausted in her efforts to control such animals. On the
other hand, many small horses which play up are most difficult to sit,
for, although they may not take their rider's breath away by their
display of physical power, they are like quicksilver on a frying-pan,
and highly test our agility in the matter of balance and grip.

I cannot conclude this chapter on ladies' horses without expressing my
strong condemnation of the senseless and cruel practice of docking
riding horses, which has nothing in its favour except its conformance to
fashion, and which in this case is disgusting cruelty. Thoroughbred
horses are never docked, whether they be used for racing,
steeplechasing or hunting, and it is a monstrous thing to mutilate
unfortunate half-breds, especially mares, and condemn them to be
tortured by flies, and to have the most sensitive parts of their bodies
turned into a safe camping ground for insects, simply because these poor
animals have a stain in their pedigree. In summer time, when flies are
troublesome, we may often see a long-tailed brood mare at grass
protecting both herself and her suckling foal from these irritating
pests by the free use of her tail; but docked mares are deprived of this
means of driving away insects, and have been known to unwittingly injure
their young by kicking and plunging violently in their efforts to r