A “horse of service,” we are informed, should be able to “trot cleane and loftilie, to stop lightlie, to turn on both hands readilie, to gallop stronglie, to manege with single turne surelie and last of all to passe a cariere [_i.e._, “do a smart spin”] swiftlie; and in all his doings from the beginning to the ending to reine well and to bear his head steddilie.” The “cariere” was to be of specified length; for a “mightie puissant horse great of stature” a shorter one was recommended. In the chapter headed “How to ride a Horse to the best shewe before a Prince”--how to show him off to the best advantage, as we should say--there is a very suggestive remark which proves how necessary were the endeavours of horse-loving sovereigns to improve the breed:-- “Maneging and doubling after a cariere belongeth to a horse of greate force, which indeed should represent in his doings the verie order of fight observed in the field _which is but little used now a daies because of the general weaknes of our horses_.” In the earlier edition the writer speaks with admiration of the Great Horse, “not finelie yet stronglie made he is of great stature. The mares also be of a great stature; strong, long, large, fayre and fruitful; and besides that, will endure great labour in their wagons, in which I have seene two or three mares to go lightly away with such a burthen as is almost uncredible.” “But now to content the countryman his desire, which seeketh to breede horses for draught or burthen, where should I wysh him to provyde hymselfe of Mares and Stallions better than here in Englande.” “I have knowne some carriars that go with carts, to be so exquisit in their choyse of horses, as onlesse been as commely to the eye as good in their worke they would not buye them; insomuch as I have seen somtyme drawing in their carts better proportioned horses than I have knowne to be fynely kept in stables, as jewels for the saddle. The horse that is meete for the cart, may serve also for the burthen, bycause he is strong and able to beare much.” In the second edition, however, we find the recommendation to the countryman to provide himself with stock of English raising qualified by a remark which confirms the author’s reference to the general weakness of the war horses of the time, and indicates that the “misfits” of the Great Horse breed, as we might suppose, were relegated to the waggon and the plough. The passage “But now to content ... better than here in Englande,” continues:-- “whereas he maie easilie find a number of strong jades more meet for that purpose than for the saddle, and all for lack of good order of breeding which if it might be once observed in this realme I believe there would be so good and so faire horses bred here as in anie place in Christendome.”