
where Yahoo-Servants were employed to rub their Skins smooth, comb their Manes,
pick their Feet, serve them with Food, and make their Beds. I understand you
well, said my Master; it is now very plain from all you have spoken, that
whatever Share of Reason the Yahoos pretend to, the Houyhnhnms are your Masters;
I heartily wish our Yahoos would be so tractable. I begged his Honour would
please to excuse me from proceeding any farther, because I was very certain that
the Account he expected from me would be highly displeasing. But he insisted in
commanding me to let him know the best and the worst: I told him he should be
obeyed. I owned, that the Houyhnhnms among us, whom we called Horses, were the
most generous and comely Animal we had; that they excelled in Strength and
Swiftness; and when they belonged to Persons of Quality, employed in Travelling,
Racing, and drawing Chariots, they were treated with much Kindness and Care,
till they fell into Diseases, or became foundered in the Feet; but then they
were sold, and used to all kind of Drudgery till they died; after which their
Skins were stripped and sold for what they were worth, and their Bodies left to
be devoured by Dogs and Birds of Prey. But the common Race of Horses had not so
good Fortune, being kept by Farmers and Carriers, and other mean People, who put
them to greater Labour, and feed them worse. I described as well as I could, our
Way of Riding; the Shape and Use of a Bridle, a Saddle, a Spur, and a Whip; of
Harness and Wheels. I added, that we fastened Plates of a certain hard Substance
called Iron at the Bottom of their Feet, to preserve their Hoofs from being
broken by the Stony Ways on which we often travelled.
    My Master, after some Expressions of great Indignation, wondered how we
dared to venture upon a Houyhnhnm's Back; for he was sure, that the weakest
Servant in his House would be able to shake off the strongest Yahoo; or by lying
down, and rolling upon his Back, squeeze the Brute to Death. I answered, That
our Horses were trained up from three or four Years old to the several Uses we
intended them for; That if any of them proved intolerably vicious, they were
employed for Carriages; that they were severely beaten while they were young for
any mischievous Tricks: That the Males, designed for the common Use of Riding or
Draught, were generally castrated about two Years after their Birth, to take
