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| HORSE SHOW, BALL'S BRIDGE, DUBLIN. -The annual Horse Show held at Ball's Bridge, Dublin, is one of the greatest attractions of the Irish metropolis. It occurs in the summer season, when everything is beautiful in Ireland is at its best, and when even things not beautiful cease to be repellent. All Europe knows the value of the Irish horse. The racer, the hunter and the charger are all renowned in cavalier circles, and have been best ridden by Emperors, Kings, Princes, Marshals, Generals, and other grandees, to no end. The once beautiful Empress of Austria used to delight in clearing "double quick-set hedges" and stone walls six feet high and upwards, on the back of her noble Irish mare. Dragoon officers and other experts, from all over the world, frequent the Dublin Horse Show every year, and bay there liberally, but chiefly "mounts" for the officers of "crack regimants," who love the high mettle of the "clean timbered," short-coupled Irish saddle horse whose only rival is our own Kentucky throughbred. The show is attended by the elite of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as by enterprising "foreigners," and the sketch fully shows the quality of the patrons of the equine exposition. The premises are owned by the Royal Dublin Society, and ther is accommodation for about 2,000 animals. The society has, up to date, expended $325,000 on improvements at Ball's Bridge. |
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