you need trouble your
head less about them, though, of course, you would not like to pay away
your money for screws; but be sure you get a good horse for your own
riding; and that you may have a good chance of having a good one, buy one
that's young and has plenty of belly--a little more than the one has
which you now have, though you are not yet a gentleman; you will, of
course, look to his head, his withers, legs, and other points, but never
buy a horse at any price that has not plenty of belly--no horse that has
not belly is ever a good feeder, and a horse that a'n't a good feeder
can't be a good horse; never buy a horse that is drawn up in the belly
behind, a horse of that description can't feed, and can never carry
sixteen stone.

"So when you have got such a horse be proud of it--as I dare say 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
housekeeper, nor your upper servants, male or female; perhaps your lady
would, that is, if she is a wopper, 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 hundred-weight of hay in the course of the week; some say that the
hay should be hardland hay, because it is 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 advant