"So when you have got such a horse be proud of it--as I daresay you
are of the one you have now--and wherever you go swear there a'n't
another to match it in the country, and if anybody gives you the
lie, take him by the nose and tweak it off, just as you would do if
anybody were to speak ill of your lady, or, for want of her, of
your housekeeper. Take care of your horse, as you would of the
apple of your eye--I am sure I would, if I were a gentleman, which
I don't ever expect to be, and hardly wish, seeing as how I am
sixty-nine, and am rather too old to ride--yes, cherish and take
care of your horse as perhaps the best friend you have in the
world; for, after all, who will carry you through thick and thin as
your horse will? not your gentlemen friends, I warrant, nor your
upper servants, male or female; perhaps your lady would, that is,
if she is a whopper, and one of the right sort; the others would be
more likely to take up mud and pelt you with it, provided they saw
you in trouble, than to help you. So take care of your horse, and
feed him every day with your own hands; give him three quarters of
a peck of corn each day, mixed up with a little hay-chaff, and
allow him besides one hundredweight of hay in the course of the
week; some say that the hay should be hardland hay, because it is
the wholesomest, but I say, let it be clover hay, because the horse
likes it best; give him through summer and winter, once a week, a
pailful of bran mash, cold in summer and in winter hot; ride him
gently about the neighbourhood every day, by which means you will
give exercise to yourself and horse, and, moreover, have the
satisfaction of exhibiting yourself and your horse to advantage,
and hearing, perhaps, the men say what a fine horse, and the ladies
saying what a fine man: never let your groom mount your horse, as
it is ten to one, if you do, your groom will be wishing to show off
before company, and will fling your horse down.
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