Page:Black Beauty (1877).djvu/156

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PART III.

CHAPTER XXXII.

A Horse Fair.

No doubt a horse fair is a very amusing place to those who have nothing to lose; at any rate there is plenty to see.

Long strings of young horses out of the country, fresh from the marshes; and droves of shaggy little Welsh ponies, no higher than Merrylegs; and hundreds of cart horses of all sorts, some of them with their long tails braided up, and tied with scarlet cord; and a good many like myself, handsome and highbred, but fallen into the middle class, through some accident or blemish, unsoundness of wind, or some other complaint. There were some splendid animals quite in their prime, and fit for anything; they were throwing out their legs, and shewing off their paces in high style, as they were trotted out with a leading rein, the groom running by the side. But round in the back ground, there were a number of poor things, sadly broken down with hard work; with their knees knuckling over, and their hind legs