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SECOND EDITION

Horse-Breeding

IN

England and India

AND

Army Horses Abroad

BY

SIR WALTER GILBEY, BART.

Author of

Horses for the Army ; The Great or War Horse ; Small Horses
IN Warfare; Horses Past and Present; The Harness Horse;
Young Race-Horses ; Early Carriages and Roads ; Animal Painters
OF England, &c., &c.

ILLUSTRATED

LONDON :
Vinton & Co., 9 New Bridge Street, E.C.

1906

[ (LONDON) 1

^<^ ^oy

CONTENTS

Horse-Breeding in 1884

The Present State of Affairs . . . . . . i

Horses Bred in England .. .. ,. .. 2

Horses Bred for Sport Only . . . . . . 4

Purchase of English Mares by Foreigners . . . . 6

Horses Wanted for the Army

Sizeable Harness Horses

Private Enterprise in England

Brf.eding Without Prejudice .. .. .. 12

Landlords would do ^VELL to give Choice of Stallions 13

Cause of Failure in English Horse-Breeding .. 13

Height of Race-Horses from ijco to 1900 .. .. 14

Character of Race-Horses from 1700 to 1900 .. 16

The Introduction of Short Races .. .. .. 18

The Roadster of a Century Ago . . . . . . 19

What Foreign Nations are Doing . . . . . . 20

Horse-Breeding in France . . . . . . . . 22

Horse-Breeding in Germany (Prussia) .. .. 30

Horse-Breeding in Hungary .. .. .. .. 35

Horse-Breeding in Austria . . . . . . . . 39

Horse-Breeding in Italy . . . . . . . . 42

Horse-Breeding in Russia .. .. .. .. 44

Horse-Breeding im Turkey .. .. .. .. 49

Horse-Breeding in India:

Opinions of the Late Veterinary-Colonel Hallen —

First endeavours lo improve Native Breeds. Army Remounts
and Horse-Breeding. Native Mares. Difficulties in the way of
improvement. Purchase of stallions. English Thoroughbreds.
Objections to Thoroughbred Stallions. Thoroughbreds from
Australia. Hackney Stallions. Results of using Thoroughbred,
Hackney and Arab Stallions. Thoroughbred and Arab .Sires in
Bombay Presidency. Relative merits of young stock by various
stallions. Commission of Inquiry 1900. Errors in working the Horse-
Breeding Scheme. Demand for horses for sport in India. Stallions
overworked. Small size of the Arab. Climate and size of the horse s2-6o
Opiniotts of Major- General Sir John Watson —

Work of old Bengal Studs. Shortcomings of e.visting system.
Indiscriminate breeding. Character of mares ignored. Hopelessness
of evolving an Anglo-Indian horse .. .. .. 60-62

The Horse-Breeding (India) Commission of 1900-1 .. 63-65

ILLUSTRATIONS

A Cover Hack, the property of the Ninth Duke of Hamilton Frontispiixc
Hunter Sire — Cognac .. .. .. .. .. 5

Height of Race-Horses from 1700 to 1900

Shark

Orville

King George IV's Hackney — Monitor..

Anglo-Xorman Stallion — Radziwill . .

Oldenburgh Mares

14

27
34

PRE FA CE

Certain chano^es havino- come over the condition
of our horse-breeding industry in England during
the last few years, and more recent information
concerning the zvork of horse-breeding in India
and the studs of France, Gejnnany, Italy and
Russia having been obtained, this Second Edition
has been made itecessary.

Chapters on " Sizeable Harness Horses'' and on
''The Height'' and ''Character" of Race-Horses
from lyoo to igoo have been added to the
original text.

The particulars of foreign stud establishments
given in the following pages show hoiu fully
Continental nations realise the importance of
encouraging horse-breeding, and the value they
continue to set on English breeding-stock.

Elsenham Hall

joth April, igo6

HORSE-BREEDING
IN ENGLAND AND INDIA

AND

ARMY HORSES ABROAD

Horse-Breedixg in 1884

More than twenty years since I drew attention" to the
neglect displayed in England in the breeding of Horses.
Stress was then laid upon our increasing dependence on
foreign countries for supplies of horses of the generally useful
stamp ; and upon the mistaken policy of selling to Continental
buyers the mares we might with profit to ourselves retain
for breeding purposes at home, if such mares are properly
mated.

The Present State of Affairs

Much has happened to alter the general condition of
affairs since those words were spoken ; since the first edition
of this book appeared in the year igoi, the change in some
departments of road transport in Britain has been increasingly
rapid. _ We have seen the horse-drawn tramcar replaced in
many cities by the electrically driven car ; and the motor-
driven omnibus threatens now to displace the horse-drawn
vehicle.

* A Paper read in 1SS4 at the Farmers' Club. With Discussion thereon
by the Duke of Westminster, Earl Carrington, Sir Ni,gel Kinf^scote,
Mr. Edmund Tattersall, and others.

These changes have brought about as a natural con-
sequence a decrease in the demand for the stamp of horse
which was formerly required ; and this decreased demand is
shown by the falHng off in our importations of horses during
the last few years.

It will be observed that our imports of horses have now
fallen below those of the years previous to 1899, 1900 and
1 90 1, the period when the South African War drained England
of horses for artillery and transport, and obliged us to buy
foreign horses in greater number than we had ever done
before :■ —

Imports of Horses for the Twenty Years, 1886 — 1905

1886 11,027 1896 40,677

1887 11,649 1897 49,519

1888 11,504 1898 42.921

1889 13.859 1899 43,900

1890 19,404 1900 51,787

1891 21.715 1901 40,856

1892 21,026 1902 32,686

1893 13,719 1903 27,266

1894 22,866 1904 18,491

1895 34,092 1905 13,711

Horses Bred in England

I have given the figures for the last twenty years to enable
the reader to compare those of recent years with importations
at earlier dates ; but it is the steady decrease during the last
four years upon which I wish to insist ; and in conjunction
with these figures for 1902, 1903, 1904 and 1905, I would
ask the reader's attention to the Government Returns of
Agricultural Horses in England during the last few years : —

1897 1,526,424 1902 1,504,789

1898 1,517,160 1903 1,537,154

1899 1.516,630 1904 1,560,236

1900 1,500,143 1905 1,572,433

1901 1,511,431

The influence of the South African War was felt by the
horse-breeding industry in common with others, but the
recovery was rapid ; and, as the figures show, we bred more
horses fov work in England in 1903, 1904 and in 1905 than
we had done for several years previously.

The horses returned as " Agricultural " are not all animals
of the stamp fitted for the plough and heavy draught work of
the farm. They include a very considerable proportion of
higher and more valuable class ; and there can be no doubt
that breeders are at last waking up to the truth of the doctrine
I have been striving to teach for more than twenty years — i.e.y
that there is a constant and steady demand for carriage
horses, and that it pays to breed them. The horses returned
as "Agricultural" also include, it cannot be doubted, a
proportion of animals bred by farmers with the view of sale as
hunters and ponies for polo and other work, the demand for
which — particularly for polo-ponies — steadily increases. The
"fancy prices" paid for polo-ponies of proved merit has done
much to encourage the production of animals of this class.

As regards high-class carriage horses, it is noteworthy
that, notwithstanding the increased use of motor-cars, the
demand for carriage horses continues to be as keen as it was
before these machines were invented. The sales of high-class
harness horses at Tattersall's and other great London
repositories during 1905 produced keener competition among
buyers and higher prices than they have ever done before.

It would seem, therefore, that at last the work done by
the Horse-Breeding Societies is beginning to bear fruit. The
twelve Breed Societies have done a great deal to encourage
the improvement of horses, by the promotion of shows and
donation of prizes. At a rough estimate the amount of money
distributed in prizes at shows held throughout England may
be put at between ;^''25,ooo and ^35,000 per annum.

In addition to these endeavours to awaken the country
and breeders to our needs, the sum of ^5,000 since the year
1887 has annually been granted by Government to encourage

horse-breeding. The greater part of this money for more than
a century had been given by the reigning sovereign in the
shape of Royal Plates.

In 1887 the Royal Commission on Horse-Breeding was
appointed, and one of the first recommendations of this body
was that the sum of ^3,500 which had been given by Queen
Victoria in prizes for races should be diverted to the use to
which it is now applied — namely, in giving premiums to
thoroughbred stallions.

Horses Bred for Sport Only

Since the end of the coaching era — say since 1850 — we
have been breeding, as at the present day, almost exclusively
for pleasure, and not for business, and this is just where our
weakness lies.

The only animals for business purposes which receive
the meed of attention their importance deserves are the heavy
draught-horses — the Shire, Suffolk and Clydesdale.

We are far ahead of any other nation as breeders of
race-horses, hunters and polo-ponies — horses used in sport —
we spare neither money nor pains to breed the best, but in
aiming at production of these we either hit the mark or miss
it altogether.

We prefer a Thoroughbred sire, not because he has bone,
substance and soundness, but because he is a Thoroughbred.
The owner of a mare does not inquire concerning the make
and shape of the stallion ; he asks, " How is he bred ? " and
a fashionable pedigree is the strongest — nay, the only —
recommendation he will accept.

This was not always the case; between the years 1800
and 1850, broadly speaking. Hunter sires were used to beget
Hunter stock. It is true that breeders of Hunters did not
confine themselves exclusively to the use of such sires, for the
increased speed of hounds obliged them to produce faster

horses ; but such animals as Cognac, whose portrait is here
given, were very largely used, to the great benefit of the
Hunter, Cognac belonged, in the words of a writer in
the Sporting Magazine of the year 1S36, " to a race of Hunters
nearly extinct, and justly celebrated for their high courage,
honesty and stoutness."

The famous writer. Air. Cornelius Tongue, best known as
"Cecil," writing in the Sporting Magazine of May, 1851, says
that "it was a prevailing opinion with hunting men until
within the last twenty years that Thoroughbreds were
not calculated for hunting." It would appear, therefore, that
during the twenty years 1831-1851 mentioned, hunting men
changed their opinions with regard to Thoroughbreds, and
came to consider them suitable for riding across country.

Having discovered that the Hunter mare threw a good foal
to the stout Thoroughbred sire, some hunting men, at least,
evidently adopted the practice of riding the Thoroughbred
horse as a Hunter instead of using him only as a sire to beget
Hunters. In this connection we must always bear in mind
that the Thoroughbred of the period referred to was still a
stout horse, able to gallop a distance and carry a heavy
weight.

Because the Thoroughbred sire of a former generation
was successfully used to beget Hunters, we have taken for
granted that his greatly altered modern descendant is equally
suitable for the purpose ; and herein to a great extent lies the
reason of our failure.

There must always be a large proportion of disappointments
in stud work ; the number of failures or misfits will always
exceed the good ones, and the misfit got by a Thoroughbred
from, say, a Hunter mare already full of Thoroughbred blood is
only too often a misfit in the fullest sense of the word —
disappointment to the breeder, too light for Army work, and
scarcely fit for useful purposes — in homely language it is a
" weed."

Purchase of En'glish Mares by Foreigners

In France, Germany, Hungary, and other foreign countries
breeders work on very different lines. They breed for business,
not for pleasure ; their aim is to produce the highest stamp
of useful horse. With this definite object they have for sixty
years and more been buying English mares, free from bias in
favour of one strain or another. Geldings, the foreign breeders
scarcely ever purchase from us. The larger number of mares
bought by them are those which have been accidentally
blemished ; but in all cases the shape and not the pedigree
of the mare guides the purchaser. They also buy sound
young mares for work, and with the view of breeding from
them afterwards.

The eagerness with which foreign agents seek to buy
mares from us has given rise to the idea that England and
Ireland have been and are being steadily drained of the best
mares; and statements to the effect that "all our best mares
are sold to go abroad" have been frequently published.
Nothing could be more misleading. The owners of good
brood mares will not part with them, and we have in this
country the foundation-stock from which to produce in the
future, as we have done in the past, horses of all breeds far
superior to any that are bred in France and Germany. We
in England and Ireland want, not the material, but the
judgment to use it properly. We have the material, and that
of the best, in abundance ; but we do not make the best use of
it. Foreign breeders buy what they can, and, by the exercise
of unbiassed judgment in mating the mares with suitable
stallions, turn the material obtained from us to far better
account than we should do.

I insisted on this point in the address I read before the
Farmers' Club in March, i884."'' I said " it was an admitted

* Riding and Driving Horses : TJieir Breeding and Management. This
paper gave rise to a most interesting discussion, in which the late Duke of
Westminster, the late Earl of Carrington, the late Mr. Edmund Tattersall,
Sir Nigel Kingscote and other prominent authorities took part.

fact that we were possessed of the true bred sires and dams
which cannot be equalled in any other country." The
statement is as true now as it was twenty-two years ago.

In addition to their annual purchases of English mares,
foreign breeders have, since about 1830, been our best
■customers for Hackney stallions. Foreign stud masters in
the great horse-rearing districts can now show us distinct
and well-marked breeds of useful horses which they have
gradually produced by judiciously mating the mares they
have bought from us. Had those mares been retained in
England it is not likely that they would have benefited the
nation ; they would, in all probability, have been put to
Thoroughbred stallions, with the results described by Lord
■Cathcart.'-'

The point on which particular stress must be laid is
that, owing to the method of breeding on the Continent, the
foreigners' misfits are unlike ours. The foreigner may — he
necessarily often does — fail to produce a youngster that will
sell in the most remunerative market, i.e.^ as a carriage-
horse ; but the misfit is not a weed, it is useful for general
purposes.

Horses Wanted for the Army

Since the South African War, the War Office authorities
have been bombarded with schemes and suggestions — good,
bad, and impossible — for increasing the home-bred supply of
Remounts.

It is certain that there will be an enormous demand in the
future for horses both large and small for military purposes.

In the year 1900 a large increase was made in one arm
which involves a large increase in the number of horses which
will be needed. Fifty-four new batteries of Artillery have been
raised ; on a peace footing each of these requires 5S horses,

* Half -Bred Horses for Field and Road: Their Breeding and Management,
ty Earl Cathcart, in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of
England, 18^3.

or a total of 3,132. The war establishment of a battery of
Royal Field Artillery is 131 horses; 7,074 additional horses
would therefore be required to equip the new batteries for
active service.

Colonel De Burgh, Director of Transport and Remounts,
in a letter dated gth March, 1906, informs me that the
authorised " Peace Establishment " of horses for all arms,
exclusive of India, is 29,713. A large proportion of these are
draught horses of good stamp, powerful but active animals,
suitable for work in the gun team or transport waggon.

It may be suggested that Britain's position as a colonising
nation, while it casts upon her larger responsibilities of
preparedness for war, lends her larger opportunities of meeting
those responsibilities. It would be impossible in these islands
to find ground for breeding-studs on the scale that would
enable us to meet a demand for all the horses we might require
for warfare on any extensive scale.

This question of military horse supplies is now become
graver than before. The substitution of mechanical traction
for horse power by the great carrying companies is cutting
off a source of supply whose value was sufficiently pro\'ed
during the South African \\'ar. Under the registration scheme,
large numbers of seasoned horses of the stamp most suitable
for Artillery and transport work were obtained from the
omnibus and kindred companies ; if electricity and motor
engines are to replace horses for such city work, the Army
must look elsewhere for its requirements in time of need.

If I may venture an opinion, our policy should be to
encourage in our Colonies — Canada, Australia, and South
Africa, more especially, as possessing soil and climate suitable
for the industry — the breeding of horses of the useful type
required for military service. There is space to conduct these
operations on a large scale in the Colonies, while the mission
of the mother country might well be to continue, as at present,
breeding the best of every strain as a source of supply to
Colonial breeders who may seek to improve their local stock.

8

The Government might profitably send to inspect and
report on the great studs of France, Germany, Hungary,
Russia and other countries.

Such inspections may have been made officially, but the
Reports have not been made accessible to the breeders of this
country. It goes without saying that the choice of agents to
make such inspections and reports must be a matter of great
difficulty. The agent must be a man possessed of practical
experience in horse-breeding, and not in breeding only one
class of horse. The man who has devoted himself exclusively
to the production of one class of horse, whether the race-horse
or the hunter, cannot rid himself of the prejudices he has
necessarily formed in the course of his experience as a breeder
of race-horses or hunters — he cannot put aside his bias in favour
of a horse suitable for sport. P^ew breeders devote themselves
to the production of several classes of horse ; and the successful
men among these few are naturally disinclined to leave their
business for a prolonged tour through the horse-breeding
districts of Europe.

Sizeable Harness Horses

It is impossible to deny that there is in the United
Kingdom a great want of sizeable harness horses ; and this is
a want which, in the interests of national defence, we should
be able to satisfy from our own breeding grounds. We
cannot do it.

I stated, in my address twent3'-two years ago, that English
horses suitable for match pairs — square made, sizeable and
having courage and action — could then be scarcely obtained ;
and the statement is hardly less true to-day. I also stated that
it was only necessary to visit the yards of our metropolitan
and country dealers to discover how difficult and costly a
matter it was then to find a London brougham-horse or a
match pair from 15.3 to 16.2 hands in height. A similar
mission might be undertaken to-day with the certainty of
encountering mucli the same difficulty.

Hundreds of pairs of carriage and coach horses have
"been sold every year in London at from ;^2oo to ^500 a
pair, the purchasers being quite unaware of their foreign
origin. At recent sales brown and bay upstanding coach-
horses from coaches running during the summer out of London
have sold at from 100 to 200 guineas ; a pair purchased by a
friend cost 350 guineas. There can be no doubt whatever
where these animals were bred ; if anyone took the trouble to
trace their pedigree it would be found that they came either
from the Oldenbourg province of Germany or from the horse-
breeding districts of Normandy in France; there can be no
mistaking the breeds.

When the Royal Commission on Irish Horse-Breeding
was appointed in the year 1897, much evidence in support of
the above statement was given by two of the largest job-
masters in London. Mr. Wimbush stated that he began to buy
horses in Normandy about the year 1887, and he continued
to obtain them from that country because they were just the
stamp of animal required for carriage work.

In his own words, these Norman horses are " not very
large — 15.3 or 15.2, and occasionally up to 16 hands — but they
are horses of beautiful appearance, very handsome and splendid
goers ; they not only step well, but go most excellently on
their hind legs."

Formerly, the London dealers used to buy carriage horses
in America. Mr. Henry Withers informed the Commissioners
that for four or five years his firm maintained one buyer in
Lexington and another in New York. The scarcity of good
carriage horses in England and Ireland obliged him to do this,
though American horses were very dear. In course of time
the Lexington and New York agencies were abandoned, not
because carriage horses of the required stamp could be found
in Great Britain, but because they could be procured more
cheaply in France, Germany and Belgium than in the United
States.

10

Mr. Withers informed the Commissioners that only a
fortnight before he appeared to give evidence he had been on
the Continent to purchase horses, and had bought in Paris,
Hanover, Brussels and Ghent.

This is an anomaly, but one for which it would be
unjust to blame the dealers, for English-bred harness-horses of
the class required have not been bred in any quantity in this
•country for more than fifty years.

The enterprising English dealers take measures to meet
their customers' requirements by maintaining on the Continent
agents whose business has been to purchase the most
■" English-looking " animals they can find ; and it may be
asserted without fear of contradiction that the horses so
purchased are bred from English stock.

The steady progress made by the Hackney Horse Society,
as evidenced by the annual increase in the number of animals
exhibited at the Show held each year at Islington, gives
ground for the hope that at last this matter of harness horse-
breeding is receiving more of the attention it deserves. Those
interested in the subject appear now to be realising that we
can breed in England harness horses of a class quite as good
as, if not superior to, those for which the jobmasters pay high
prices in the French and German markets.

It would be strange if we could not do so, having regard
to the fact that the foreign breeders have built up their
■excellent harness horses very largely — almost entirely — on
stock purchased from England.

Private Enterprise in England

It is not, I think, desirable that the British Government
should embark upon costly horse-breeding operations in
emulation of foreign powers. Private enterprise in England
has succeeded in producing domestic animals of all kinds so far
superior to those bred in other countries that English stock,
whether Horses, Cattle, Sheep or Swine, are purchased at

II

"fancy prices" to improve their kind in every civilised part of
the world, and breeding industries would not benefit were the
independence of the individual undermined by Government
help which relieved him from the necessity to exercise his
own energies and judgment.

It must be said, however, that private enterprise is not
always wisely directed. The practice among large landed
proprietors and others of keeping stallions to serve the mares
of their tenants and others at small fees is increasing.

It is an ungrateful task to take exception to a practice
which proves anxiety both to promote the welfare of the
tenants and to encourage the breeding of good horses ; but it
must be pointed out that to keep a Thoroughbred stallion
to serve any or all the mares that may be brought to him,
tends directly to defeat the good objects in view.

Breeding without Prejudice

It will be seen that none of the Continental Governments
which devote attention to horse-breeding pin their faith to
one single breed and depend upon that to improve all breeds.
The ground plan of the system in each country is to
raise the standard of merit of each breed (i) by providing
the best procurable stallions of that breed for public
service at low fees, and (2) by affording the owners of
mares a certain range of choice in stallions, that defects
may be eliminated or improvement obtained by judicious
crossing.

Where the system of affording owners of mares
opportunity for choosing among various stallions all the
best of their kind has been long in \-ogue we see the
results in the shape of distinct strains which breed true to
type ; for example, in Hungary they have established a breed
of saddle-horses ; in France a distinct strain of carriage-
horses — the Anglc-Norman — has been established on so true

12

and constant a basis that it not only breeds true to type,
but can be depended on to assert itself when crossed with
other breeds and stamp its character upon the progeny.

Landlords would do well to give Choice of Stallions

Those who desire to assist their tenants can only
accomplish their end by keeping stallions of several breeds.
Let the owner of a mare choose for himself whether he shall
put her to a Thoroughbred, Hunter-sire, Hackney, Arab, or
to a stallion of one of our Draught breeds.

We should then have in operation a system which
combines the invaluable advantage of choice so wisely provided
by foreign stud-masters with that freedom to exercise discretion
and judgment from which none would w^ish to see our farmers
relieved.

If one landowner be unable or unwilling to maintain such
a stud representative of several breeds, there would be surely
no great difficulty in two or three landlords combining to
maintain a joint stud at one farm ; for the essence of the plan
is to make all the stallions equally accessible.

In this connection I would add that I am no advocate for
horse-breeding by public companies. The business is not one
that lends itself to industrial enterprise in that form.

Cause of Failure in English Horse-Breeding

If evidence be required to explain how we ha\'e failed to
supply the nation's wants, it is only necessary to refer to
the Reports of the various Commissions which have been
appointed to inquire into the subject of horse-breeding, and
more particularly to the Report of Lord Cathcart already
referred to.

Lord Cathcart makes the cogent remark that " in
addition and supplementary to blood we must have substance
from somewhere." The truth is that we have been working

13

as though blood necessarily gives substance. This was the case
a hundred years ago and less, but is true no longer, and we must
divest ourselves of the idea so resolutely held that the Thorough-
bred is the only strain which can improve our horses. Like
foreign breeders, we must seek bone and substance where those
•qualities exist and not where they only used to exist.

Height of Race-Horses from 1700 to 1900

About the year 1700, when the foundations of our
Thoroughbred stock were laid, our race-horses averaged
14 hands or thereabout. The three "foundation sires" — the
Byerly Turk (imported 1689), the Darley Arabian (imported
1706), and the Godolphin Arabian (imported 1724) — were each
of them horses of about 14 hands ; and the race-horses of that
and subsequent generations were no larger. Some, indeed,
were smaller ; Mixbury, by Curwen's Bay Barb out of an Old
Spot Mare, was only 13.2 in height.

The weights small horses were asked to carry were
greatly in excess on those in vogue on the race-course now.
In 171 1, the conditions for a six guinea Plate at Newmarket
imposed a burden of 10 stone on the horse, mare or gelding of
14 hands, with weight for inches if below or above that
height — which, clearly, was the average height of the racehorse
of the time. The weights, prescribed by law, for the Royal
Plates ranged from 10 to 12 stone, according to age.

The usual length of a race— run in heats be it noted — was
four miles; but six mile races were not unusual in 1700- 1800
until the later years of that century. These longer races
then fell into disuse, but four miles continued to be the
distance for the Royal Plates during the earlier years of the
19th century.

As the years passed, the race-horse became higher. The
scale for "Give and Take" Plates, framed in 1770, gives the
weights to be carried by horses of from 12 to 15 hands; the

H

HEIGHT of KACE-HOESES from 1700 to 1900

latter was obviously the extreme height for which it was
considered necessary to provide, and it was probably an
uncommon thing for the limit to be reached.

Admiral Rous {Baily's Magazine, i860) showed that the
average height of the Thoroughbred had then increased one
inch in every twenty-five years. Facts bear out the x\dmirars
statement.

We cannot doubt that the rate of increase in height has.
been more rapid from 1800 to 1900 than it was from 1700 to
1800, and for this reason — About the year 1800, or a little
earlier, the practice of racing two -year -old horses was
introduced, and, as a natural consequence, breeders began to
" force " their young stock in order to make them the sooner
ready for racing.

The results of this policy had become evident in 1836, for
an authority writing in that year "■' says : —

" We have seen that the ' Turf ' commenced with ponies, and that
for a long period horses under 14 hands were found among the best racers.
. . . The intelhgent reader must perceive that the great size so much
admired by the pubhc in brood mares has been acquired. . . . The
English racer, we cannot doubt, acquired his enlarged structure by rich
food."

The "enlarged structure" to which the author refers, in
his day, did not e.xceed 15 hands; we may doubt whether the
a^■erage height was so much. Individual horses there were,
as the Turf records inform us, which measured over 15 hands
about this period, but these were very exceptional, and we
shall probably be within the mark if we put the average height
of the race-horses of 1800- 1820 at 14 hands 3 inches.

With the increase in height attained in our own day our
race-horses have lost, in great measure, the qualities possessed
by their smaller ancestors. It would seem that there is a
point in height, beyond which the race-horse, or indeed any
horse, cannot with advantage be bred. Mr. Scawen Blunt.

* A Comparative View of the Form and Cltaraeter of the English Racer
and Saddlc-Horses dining the Past and Present Centuries. Published by
Thomas Hookham, 15 Old Bond Street, London. 1836.

15

discovered this in his extensive experience as a breeder of
Arabs. He found that there was no difficulty in grading them
up a couple of inches ; but he found that when this had been
done the bigger horses were in no way stouter, stronger or
better than x\rabs of normal size.

Mr. \\'illiam Day, the famous trainer, was a strong
advocate for the horse of moderate size. He writes"' :■ —

" As a rule 3'ou may get fifty good small horses for one good large
one, and the former will, and do, run well after the latter has been put to
the stud. ... A good big horse may beat a good little one over a short
course ; but I think at three or four miles a good little one would beat the
best big one I ever saw."

Mr. Day admits the great merits of some big horses —
Fisherman and Rataplan, for example — but, both for the
race-course and the stud, his unrivalled experience leads him
to prefer the small one ; in fact, when he reviews forty years'
work among horses, he can recall but one single good stallion
above or about 16 hands — namely, Stockwell.i

Character of Race-Horses from 1700 to 1900

We have only to examine the history of the race-horse to
discover that the breed has undergone most marked changes
in conformation, constitution and character during the last
two hundred years ; and to realise that while the race-horse of
a former age could be depended on to beget animals sound and
hardy, capable of carrying weight, and that over long distances,
he has undergone such changes that it is absurd to expect him
to do the same thing in our own day.

For generations we have aimed at the development of a
horse of great speed, able to travel a short distance under a
light weight ; and having accomplished this with the greatest
success, we still expect him to beget horses able to travel long
distances under heavy weights at reasonable speeds — to
.beget, in a word, horses of similar stamp to his remote
.ancestors, from whom we have made him utterly dissimilar !

* The Race-hoysc in Training.

t The Horse : Hoiv to Breed and Rear Him.

16

We may sum up this aspect of our subject by saying
that the modern race-horse, as a sire for the impro\'ement
of our breeds of useful horses, is Hving upon the reputation
made by his ancestors, who, by reason of their form and
quahties, could do what we have made it impossible for the
modern Thoroughbred to do — i.e., impart qualities \ye have,
carefully bred out of him.

Such horses as Shark, whose portrait is here given, had
bone and substance. . The work they were called upon to '
perform required the highest qualities of the horse — stamina,
staying-power and ability to carry weight. Shark was foaled
in 1771, and was got by Marsk from a mare by Snap;
he was bred by Mr. Robert Pigott, and made his first
appearance on a racecourse at the Newmarket First October
Meeting of 1774. He started 29 times and won 19 times,
receiving '6 forfeits and paying 4; he won more money than
any horse up to his time.

Shark, like many of our celebrated Thoroughbreds, was
sent to America in 1786, and in Virginia laid the foundation
of the famous Snap blood.

Hambletonian, another representative horse of the old
stamp, was foaled m 1792 ; he was got by King Fergus from
a mare by Highflyer, and was bred by Mr. J. Hutchinson,
of Skipton, near York. In 1795 he was sold to Sir Charles
Turner, and by him in the following year to Sir Henry
Vane Tempest. Hambletonian was only once beaten, and
on that occasion (at York August Meeting of 1797) he ran
out of the course just after starting. His most famous
achievement was his victory over Mr. Cookson's Diamond on
25th March, 1799, at Newmarket.

Such a horse as Orville, whose portrait faces page 18, may
be offered as an example of the race-horse of a century ago.
This horse was foaled in i 799, and was by Beningbrough out
of Evelina. He was bred by Earl Fitzwilliam, and between
1 801, when he ran his first race at Doncaster, and the Second

17

October Meeting at Newmarket in 1807 lie fulfilled 22 engage-
ments, of which he won 18. He was second once, received
forfeit once, and walked over once. His successes included
the St. Leger of 1802, and he won races under all weights
(including a King's Plate in 1805 under 12 stone) and at all
distances. On 24th September, 1804, at Doncaster, he won
two races, one in four-mile heats, the other in two-mile heats.
He became, in 1804, the property of Prince George of Wales,
and proved a most successful sire when sent to the stud.
Orville is described as " a good brown."

The Colonel was a good horse of a generation later ; he
was bred by Mr. Wyvill, of Burton Constable, in 1825. After
winning the St. Leger in 1829, he was sold to King George IV.
for ;^4,ooo, and won many important races in 1830 and 1831.
When the Hampton Court stud was dispersed in October,
1837, he was purchased for 1,600 guineas by Mr. Richard
Tattersall.

These were animals which could be depended to run
three four-mile heats in an afternoon, and could therefore
be depended on to produce stock with their own valuable
characteristics.

The Introduction of Short Races

The old-fashioned race, run in four-mile heats, began to
grow less popular during the last quarter of the eighteenth
century, and the tendency to reduce the length of races and
also the weights carried became marked in the earlier years
of the nineteenth century. Elsewhere * an example of the
remarkable change in our Turf system has been given, and
may conveniently be repeated here. At the Newmarket
Craven Meeting of 1820 there was one race of about three
miles, five races of two miles or over, twenty races of about

* Horses, Past ami Pyesent. By Sir Walter Gilbev, Bart. Published
by Vinton & Co., Ltd. 1900.

one mile, and two of under one mile. At the Newmarket
Craven Meeting of 1900 there were three races of about one
mile and a half, six of about one mile, and eleven of five or
six furlongs.

In 1832 a new schedule of weights was issued for the
Royal Plates. From about this time the system of short races
and light weights began to develop, and as it developed the
character of the race-horse underwent a change. With every
desire to produce Thoroughbreds possessing power as well as
speed, breeders have found themselves unable to reproduce
the former quality and successfully compete for the great
prizes of the Turf. To be successful in these days the race-
horse must possess the utmost speed, but he need not be able
to travel at speed for a greater distance than a mile and a half
at most, and if he can carry 9 stone he is considered a weight
carrier.

The Roadster of a Century Ago

Thoughtful writers foresaw the result of this change in
the English Turf more than 60 years ago, when Thoroughbreds
of stamina and substance were far more plentiful than they are
now. x^n author previously quoted" declared that at that date
" There are powerful reasons for concluding that the single
quality of speed possessed by the modern (1836) racer is a
bad substitute for the fine old union of speed, stoutness and
structural power possessed by the old racer."

The racer of the thirties was lighter than his ancestors,
but he was far stouter and truer made than his modern
descendant. "The older race-horses," wrote this author,
"were swift enough to enable the general breeder to produce
excellent saddle-horses. Our roadsters were formerly admirable

* A Comparative View of the Form and Character of the English Racer
and Saddle-Horses during the Past and Present Centuries. Published by
Thomas Hookham, 15 Old Bond Street, London. 1836

19

and plentiful, while at present a compact and powerful roadster
with free action is scarcely to be bought at any price. It is
obvious that the horses of our cavalry are much deteriorated,
and that many of them could not go through a single
campaign."

A fine example of the old-fashioned saddle-horse is shown
in the frontispiece, which is reproduced from George Garrard's
picture of " Archibald, ninth Duke of Hamilton and Brandon,
on a cover hack." This work was engraved and published
in 1797.

Another example of the old-fashioned roadster, whose
disappearance the writer above quoted deplores, is Monitor, a
very fast Hackney which belonged to George IV. That
monarch was passionately fond of horses, and Monitor was
evidently a special favourite, as his portrait was painted by
James Ward, R.A., and exhibited at the Royal Academy in
1825. This horse was a son of the famous Phenomenon, who
traces his descent in a direct line to the Darley Arabian. The
Darley Arabian (foaled 1702) begat Flying Childers (foaled in
1 71 5), who was the speediest race-horse of his time, and was
considered by many a better horse than Eclipse. The portrait
of Monitor, which is here given, shows the best stamp of the
old Norfolk Hackney ; muscular, hardy and sound of constitu-
tion and limb, this breed furnished the ideal roadster.

What Foreign Nations are Doing

Foreign Governments recognise the fact that they can
learn something from their neighbours ; they give proof of
this by the encouragement they lend to Horse Shows of
an International character, such as those which have been
held in recent years at Antwerp, Hamburg, Amsterdam,
Vienna, Brussels, and in 1900 at Paris. These exhibitions
afford opportunities which do not occur otherwise of
comparing the results of various systems and methods of
breeding.

20

A golden opportunity of seeing the stamp of horse each
Government of Europe is striving to produce for mihtary
purposes occurred in September, igoo, in the International
Horse Show held at Paris, when the French Government
spent upwards of £'50,000 in prizes, on erecting suitable
buildings, &c., for the show, which lasted only one week.
There were collected horses of numerous and varied strains
from all parts of France, from Germany, Hungary, Austria,
Russia and Turkey. So excellent an opportunity for comparing
a large number of representative examples of different breeds
is unlikely to recur in our time, and it is a thousand pities
that the War Office authorities did not send one or two
competent men to profit by the wonderful object-lesson there
provided.

The Army horses or various nations exhibited at the
Paris Show were shown mounted. To demonstrate the
results of the practice of breeding for the various classes of
work horses are required to perform, a selection of sizeable
stallions and mares was first paraded, and these were followed
into the ring by a troop of heavy cavalry mounted on the
produce of these stallions and mares. Then we were
shown stallions and mares of medium size, and with them a
detachment of cavalry mounted on their progeny. After
these came stallions and mares more highly bred, followed
again by a troop of light cavalry mounted on their progeny.
Nothing more interesting and more instructive could have
been devised.

It is worth while glancing briefly at the systems prevail-
ing in France, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Italy, Turkey
and Russia. The reader will observe that the object of
each Government being to foster and encourage the breeding
of horses of classes most useful to the people of the country,
there is in every case considerable variety of breed in the
public studs, and that the owner of a mare may exercise his
own judgment in selection of a sire.

Horse-Breeding in France

At the conclusion of the wars which called forth all her
strength in the earlier years of the nineteenth century, the
want of horses in France engaged the serious attention of
the Government. Commissioners were appointed to travel
through the country and ascertain what horses of certain old
and esteemed breeds could be procured to re-stock the Royal
Studs ; and measures were adopted to encourage private
breeders.

The Sporting Magazine of 1820 contains translation
of a minute presented by the Minister of the Interior to-
Louis XVIII. recommending a number of gentlemen for gold
and silver medals in recognition of the work they had done
and were doing to promote the breeding of horses. Some
details are given of the studs owned by these gentlemen, and
from these it would appear that Arabs and Spanish stallions
found place in several private studs.

From the same publication we learn that for some
years prior to 1820 foreign breeders had ceased to buy
only Thoroughbreds in England to improve their stocks,,
and "great numbers of our half-bred mares have been
collected and sent abroad." The trade then established has
continued ever since, as has been shown on pages 6 and 7,
under the heading " Purchase of English Mares by
Foreigners."

" Cecil," in an article on racing in the Sporting Magazine
of 1 85 1, says horses for general use were then very scarce in
England, whilst the French Government were encouraging
their production, more especially that of powerful animals for
military purposes and for general utility.

22

Napoleon III. (1852-1870), pursuing the policy of his
predecessor, Louis Philippe, did his utmost to encourage the
breeding of good horses. During his reign large numbers of
Thoroughbred stallions, always selected for their stoutness and
staying power, were purchased in England ; valuable stakes
were offered for long races (2 miles 6 furlongs), in which
the horses had to carry fairly heavy weights, and four-mile
steeplechases at weights of from 12 to 13 stone were instituted
for Thoroughbred stallions.

With the same end in view, flat races and steeplechases
were established for half-bred horses, and the fields that
turned out for these have been compared to those that face
the starter for Hunter stakes in England.

The Turf in France has always been made subservient
to the serious national work of breeding useful horses.
Public money is not spent in encouraging weeds only
capable of carrying six or seven stone over a five furlong
course.

Under the law of 29th March, 1874, the Horse-
Breeding establishments of France were reorganised. It
was then enacted that the State should purchase stallions
at the rate of 200 per year, until a total of 2,500 had
been reached. In 1892 another law was passed, sanctioning
a further increase in the number of State stallions by
annual additions of 50 per year. Finally, in 1900, a third
law authorised the purchase of 50 stallions a year until
the number owned by the State should reach a gross total
•of 3.450-

France, for stud purposes, is divided into six districts,
which contain 22 Government studs for stallions. At these
studs, on ist January, 1905, 3,267 stallions of different breeds
were available for distribution among 689 local covering
stations for the public service.

The Inspector-General of Horse-Breeding operations has
been kind enough to give me the following information as to

23

the strength of the studs at the beginning of
stalhons, it will be noticed, are divided into three

I Thoroughbreds ...
Thoroughhreds ... J Arabs

I Anglo- Arabs*

(Southern Half-bredsi
Normans and Vendeans
lyui. ± ,i,u,uu^nu,^uo... . Qualified Trottersj:
1 English Hackneys
( English Hackneys — Cross-
Percherons
Boulonnais
Ardennes ...
Bretons

Draught

1905.

ihe

classes

:—

244

102

233

200

i>45i

307

120

-bred i;

74

301

71

98

66

3,267

Comparing the numbers of stallions of various breeds
in 1899 with those owned by the Republic in 1905, some
interesting and suggestive facts appear. There is a decrease
in the number of Thoroughbred sires, as the following figures
show : —

Thoroughbreds ...

Arabs

Anglo-Arabs

Now let us see how other light breeds stand

Normans and \^endean stallions
Qualified Trotters
English Hackneys
Hackneys — Cross-bred

* Cross between English Thoroughbred and Arab.

t Southern (du Midi) horses are bred in the Tarbes district and have
a strong strain of Arab blood.

j Certified to have trotted one kilometre (about 5 furlongs) in
I minute 40 seconds. These horses have been graded up from Hackney
sires which were imported from Engtand forty or fifty years ago.

§ Cross between English Hackneys and Hunter mares imported from
England.

1899

1905

Decrease

262

244

18

105

102

3

260

233

27

tand :-
1899

1905

Increase

'354

i'45i

67

261

307

46

71

120

49

78

74

4

24

The breed of which the French Government has most
largely increased its number of stallions, having regard to
proportional strength, is the English Hackney.

From the table showing how the stallions are distributed
among these 22 Studs, we may select two important examples ;
the stud at Tarbes, in the Pyrenean region, where light horses
are chiefly bred, and Le Pin, in Normandy, where heavier
saddle horses, carriage and light draught, and a proportion of
heavy draught horses are produced.

At Tarbes, in 1905, the horses available for distribution
among covering stations were : — Thoroughbreds : English, 39 ;
Arabs, 29; Anglo-Arabs, 55 ; total, 123. Half-Breds: Southern
horses, 51 ; Normans and Vendeans, 8 ; English Hackneys, 2 ;
total, 61. In all, one hundred and eighty-four stallions.

At Le Pin, the following were available for distribution : —
Thoroughbreds: English, 17. Half-Breds : Normans and
Vendeans, loi ; Qualified Trotters, 62; English Hackneys,
17; total, 180. Draught Sires: Percherons, 77 ; Boulonnais, 3 ;
total, 80. In all, two hundred and seventy-seven stallions.

The largest stud in France is that at St. Lo, in Nor-
mandy, whence 423 stallions were distributed in 1905; but it is
less representative than the two of which details have been
given, consisting of 317 Norman and Vendean stallions, with
74 Qualified Trotters and 32 English Thoroughbreds.

To further illustrate the system, let us take one small
covering station, to which there are hundreds similar — that
at Lesparre, in the Medoc. The stallions which stood for
three months during the season 1904 at Lesparre were as
follows : —

Fee

I.

COTHURNE

English Thoyoughbred b

5 Farfadet

— Cothurnia

8s.

2.

OVEZO

Anglo- Arab

, Edhen

—Electricity

5S.

3-

Jambes d'Arge

XT

Anglo -Arab ,

, Fil en Quatre

—Johette

55-

4-

OUF

Half-bred Trotter*

Fred Archer

— Alumette

i6s.

5-

LlERNOLLES

Half-bred Norman*

Flabell

—Virago

5S.

6,

Tell

Half-bred

Frondeni

— Vamba

55-

7-

Un Sybarite

Half-bred

Portugal

— Frein

5S-

* All these •'

Ha

If-bred Trotters'' and

Half-bred N

orman stallions

have Hackney blood in their veins.

25

This table of fees brings out another suggestive fact In
1899 the highest fee was 165. 8^. charged for the service of
Thoroughbred mares by the Thoroughbred stalhon Montbran.
In 1905, 85., or less than half, is the fee set upon the service of
the only English Thoroughbred ; but the Half-bred Trotter
sire commands a fee of 165. in 1905, whereas in 1899 service
by Half-breds could be had at 55. and 85. ^d. These changes
show us very clearly what blood is most in demand among the
shrewd French horse-breeders who seek to produce horses
that will sell.

Lesparre is in a district in which horse-breeding is by no
means a prominent industry — it is one of the chief vine-
growing regions of France ; the celebrated vineyard Chateau
Lafite is only seven miles distant from Lesparre — yet the
owner of a mare may choose from seven stallions, representing
five different strains, paying the small fees specified above.
The supply of stallions is adjusted to meet the local demand;
the foregoing list shows us that experience has taught the
Stud authorities to make provision for service by Half-breds
of five times as many mares as are sent to the Thoroughbred
or Anglo-Arab.

There is no heavy draught stallion at Lesparre ; the
reason is to be found in the fact that oxen are very generally
used for cart and plough in this district, and heavy draught
horses therefore are not bred. If we turn to the P^inistere
Department of Brittany, where post horses are bred, we
shall find the same principle in operation ; there stand stallions
of a stamp calculated to get the sturdy " blocky " horses for
which the district is noted, and which have been graded up
from imported Hackney sires.

In France, during the year 1904, there were 3,213
stallions belonging to the State in actual ivovk ; these covered
175,956 mares. Looking more closely into the returns of
service, we find that in the Thoroughbred class (English,
Arab, and Anglo-Arab), 583 stallions performed 25,577
services, or about 44 each ; the Half-bred class, 109,271

26

Ph

services, or nearly 52 each ; and the Draught sires, 41,108, or
over 79 each.

The staUions at each local covering station are changed
frequently.

An excellent representative of the stamp of horse produced
by judicious crossing is shown in the engraving. This is the
portrait of Radziwill, an x\nglo-Norman stallion, descended
through his sire from the Norfolk Phenomenon. Radziwill,
when this portrait was taken in 1900, was five years old; he
is a chestnut standing a shade under 16.1, and is the mode
of the high-class carriage horse. He was shown with his
sire Juvigny at the International Show at Paris, and the
resemblance between father and son was a striking object-
lesson in the success with which judicious mating can produce
animals true to type. Radziwill's dam was a small Anglo-
Norman mare, but coming of a breed normally big, her foal
proved true to his breeding and furnished into a truly grand
harness-horse.

Besides the 3,213. stallions belonging to the State, there
is a large number in the hands of private owners. Any
stallion whose services are available to the public must
be licensed by Government as belonging to one of three
classes : —

(i) "Approved" stallions, which are considered good
enough to improve the breed of horses. These are sub-
divided into two classes : Sires which earn over 100 francs {£■{)
per service form the first class ; these receive no bounty from
the State ; the second class consists of sires for whose service
100 francs or less is charged by the owner ; these receive an
annual premium of from ;^t2 to £80 a year. In 1904 there
were 1,479 " Approved" Stallions, viz. : —

Thoroughbreds, Arabs and Anglo- Arabs ... 306
Not Thoroughbreds ... ... ... ... 438

Draught ... ... ... ... ... 715

i>479
27

(2) "Authorised" stallions, which receive no premium,
but whose progeny are eligible to compete at shows subsidised
by the State. They were — ■

Thoroughbreds, Arabs and Anglo-Arabs ... 23
Not Thoroughbreds ... ... ... ... 28

Drauofht ... ... ... ... ... 202

253

(3) " ii\ccepted " stallions, which have nothing to
recommend them but a certificate of freedom from roaring
and intermittent opthalmia. In 1904, 7,629 stallions were
accepted by the committees charged with the duty of
examination.

During the year 1904 the "Approved" stallions
performed 75,717 services, and the "Authorised" stallions
11,945. No record is kept of the co\erings by the third class,
the " Accepted " stallions.

There is only one Government stud farm. This is at
Pompadour, where sixty mares are kept.

English Thoroughbred, Arab and Anglo-Arab horses only
are bred at Pompadour, and the farm is only a small factor in
the general scheme of breeding. Improvement is sought
principally through the provision of good stallions.

Bounties are also given for brood-mares, filly foals, and
as prizes for horse-breaking at public competitions. These
measures encourage owners to retain possession of the best
breeding-stock for the benefit of the nation, and stimulate
endeavour among the people to achieve skill as horse masters.

In every breeding district in France shows are held at
which the young stock are exhibited and are awarded prizes.
The two-year-olds are led and the three-year-olds are shown
mounted.

The judges are officials connected with the neighbouring
studs and one or two representatives of the head office of
State Haras in Paris.

28

About ^308,000 of public money is spent annually in
France in horse-breeding. The expenditure includes the
maintenance of the stallion studs and depots, purchase of
horses, premiums to private stallion owners, and prizes given
at races, local shows, &c. About ^100,000 of this total is
derived from the tax or percentage levied on the pari nnituel,
or betting organisation, which tax is "ear-marked" by the
Treasury to devote to horse-breeding purposes.

29

Horse-Breeding in Germany

Prussia stands pre-eminent among the German States as
the horse-breeding region ; in fact, all the Government studs
-and farms are situated in Prussia.

The stallions for public service belonging to the State
numbered 3,194 in the year 1904; this shows a marked
increase on the strength of the studs during the last ten or
eleven years. In 1884, the State stallions numbered 2,152;
in 1896 the total number was about 2,600. These 3,194
stallions are distributed among 18 "Rural Studs," which, in
their turn, supply 1,045 covering stations, an increase of 146
since 1896-7.

The stallions in 1904 were classed as follows : —

Class I. Light Riding-Horses, 830 (including 100 English
Thoroughbreds, 12 Arabs and Anglo- Arabs).

Class II. Heavy Riding or Light Draught-Horses, 1,660.

Class III. Heavy Draught Horses, 704 (including
Percherons, Belgian and Ardennes horses ; Shires and
Clydesdales ; French and Norman, and German Farm-horses.

Comparing these figures with those of 1896-7, given in
the former edition of this book, it appears that the German
Stud-masters, like the French, have of recent years learned
to depend less upon the English Thoroughbred. In 1896-7,
Class I. consisted of 419 light riding-horses, of which 94, or
less than one-fourth, were Thoroughbreds ; the figures kindly
furnished me by the Inspector-General of Studs at Berlin
show that in 1904 Thoroughbred horses formed less than
one-eighth of the total.

The principal object of the Prussian Government Stud
Department is to provide Remounts for the Army. Of the
Remounts supplied in 1904, about 6,000 were for cavalry;
and of these only 600 were got by Thoroughbred sires.

30

The fee charged for the use of a pubhc stalUon is
generally under £i.

Privately owned stallions must be approved by local
committees (which also license bulls and boars) before their
services may be hired. During the financial year of 1904,
2,279 licences were applied for and 1,433 were granted. The
majority of these licences were for light riding or light draught-
horses ; the remainder for farm and cart stallions.

Much is done to promote private enterprise. There is a
special fund provided by the Government from which private
horse-breeding associations can obtain loans free of interest.
Such loans must be repaid within six years. At the end of
1895, 61 associations had taken advantage of this fund, the
total lent being £5,275.

Brood-mares may be purchased on very easy conditions
from the Government Supply Depots; the principal stipulation
being that the buyer shall have the mare covered by a good
half-bred stallion belonging to an Imperial stud, and shall
offer the produce when three years old to the Army buyer
as a Remount. If, however, the owner wish to employ the
produce for stud purposes he is not bound to put it on the
Remount market. Pecuniary inducements are also offered to
■breeders to retain good brood-mares and rear young stock.

For the convenience of breeders the War Office agents
arrange markets at suitable times and places, where young
animals on sale as Remounts for the Army may be inspected
and bought ; no middlemen are employed.

Horses are purchased by the military buyers at three
years old. The average price paid is about £^47? but
purchasing officers are, or were a few years since, mstructed
to deal liberally with the breeders. I am informed that it
was the rule not to try and beat down the price asked for
a horse if it were reasonable ; and giving a small breeder
more than he demanded was not unknown if the animal
appeared more valuable than the owner supposed it. The
young horses thus purchased are kept at the Remount Depots

31

for about fifteen months and are then distributed among
regiments. Before this distribution takes place, breeders may
select any mares that promise to make particularly good
brood-mares, paying a little more than the average price for
the animals so chosen. Few, however, take advantage of
this privilege.

Mr. Frederick Wrench, in the Badminton Magazine of
December, 1899, describes the stallions in the Rural Stud
at Celle, near Hanover. There were, at the time of his visit,
250 horses in this establishment, fourteen of which were
Thoroughbred and all the rest Half-bred Hanoverian. Of
these latter Mr. Wrench says : " The regular Hanoverian
type is a dark brown or chestnut placid-looking harness-
horse, standing at least 16.1, with great limbs, a good
look-out, a fairly good back, and long enough to fill any
harness." These Hanoverian horses trace their ancestry
back to stock which was imported into Germany fifty or sixty
years ago by Mr. H. R. Phillips.

The names of both Irish and Yorkshire Half-bred horses
still appear on a few of the pedigree cards fixed in each stall
at Celle, where the number of stallions in T905 had been
increased to 275.

Hackney blood was widely diffused over the horse-
breeding districts of Germany, Hanover, Oldenbourg,
Holstein, Mecklenburg, and East Friesland ; for, once
Mr. Phillips had introduced the Hackney to his German
customers, sires and dams with the blood of Performer
(foaled 1 8 10) and Ramsdale's Phenomenon (foaled 1835) were
eagerly bought up to cross with the local stock. It is exceed-
ingly probable that the inter-trade in harness-horses between
''England and Germany dates back to a much earlier period ;
the best of the German coach-horses and our own have so
much of the same character in common that they would
seem to be descended from practically the same stock.

In addition to the 18 "Rural Studs" referred to on
page 30, there are six State breeding-studs with about 740

32

mares and 30 stallions. Of these Graditz and Trakehnen
are the more important. The stallions bred at these
establishments are sent to the Rural Studs if they can fulfil
the standard of merit required by the committee which is
assembled to examine them. Those that fail to satisfy the
committee are sold by public auction.

The largest of these studs is that at Trakehnen in East
Prussia. When Mr. Wrench paid his visit to this estate,
which covers about 10,300 acres, the breeding-stock comprised
4 Thoroughbred and 12 Half-bred stallions, with over 400
mares. The Trakehnen horse, as it may be called, for
it now breeds true to type, is generally a long, low black
horse, about 16 hands high, with the best of limbs and a
beautiful head, " a trifle long in the back, according to English
ideas, but a valuable stamp of horse, especially for harness
purposes." The extreme quietness and docility of these
Trakehnen horses, young and old, evoked comment from
Mr. Wrench.

By the distribution of illustrated pamphlets the German
Government endeavours to instruct breeders in the best
methods of managing stock, and also concerning the stamps
of horse required for the Army. A typical Artillery and
heavy-weight saddle-horse is described as follows, for the
guidance of breeders : —

" Height at 3 years, 15. i to 15. 2i ; height when full-grown, i5-2| to
16. i|. Activity, speed, freedom of action and endurance are required as
in the artillery horse. The breast need not be so broad as m the artillery
horse. The fetlock should not be too short; while, on the other hand, if
too long it bends too low and causes the heavy weight carried to produce
fatigue on a long march. A good back for the saddle is as necessary in
the cavalry horse as a good shoulder for the collar in the artillery
horse."

The "general requirements" in horses for the German
Army are thus detailed : —

" (i) Small, blood-like head, neck well set on. (2) .Strong well-placed
legs with big joints. (3) Well-arched ribs and good sloping shoulders.
(4) Well-formed, strong back, not too long, well-coupled and high-lying
kidneys. 15) Strong hocks, free from disease. (6) Round, sound hoofs
with healthy frogs. (7) Sound constitution and good digestion; and (8)
Free, energetic action."

33

The mares whose portraits are here given are of the
Oldenbourg breed. The province of Oldenbourg has long
been famous for coach-horses. OHver Cromwell, when
Protector, received as a gift a team of coach-horses from
the Duke of Oldenbourg.

The net cost of Germany's horse-breeding establishments
is about ^190,000 a year.

34

Horse-Breeding in Hungary

The stud machinery in Hungary is elaborate and exten-
sive. There are four State breeding-farms where stalHons are
bred for the pubUc service. The stallions, which in 1896
numbered 2,838, are sent out to 18 central depots, and from
these upwards of 946 local covering stations are annually
supplied. The service fees range from is. 4^. to 155. 4^.
Large breeders may hire stallions from the central depots for
the season.

Hungarian methods are admirably described by Pro-
fessor John Wrightson in his " Report on the Agriculture
of the Austro- Hungarian Empire," published in Vol. II.
(Second Series) of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural
Society (1874); and by Mr. J. Collins, Principal Veterinary
Surgeon to the Forces in 1880, whose Report on the Studs
and Breeds of Horses in Hungary was, by permission of the
Secretary of State for War, reproduced in the Journal of the
Royal Agricultural Society.

Professor Wrightson in 1873 niade a tour of ten weeks in
Hungary, and visited the great studs belonging to the Crown.
He observes that the breeding of horses in that country is
one of the most popular branches of rural economy, and is
carried on not only by the Government but by most of the
great landed proprietors with wonderful results.

Hungarian breeders are at issue with the many English
breeders who look upon the Thoroughbred as essential to the
supply of half-bred saddle horses. " We have, in fact, no
distinct race of saddle-horses ; but in Hungary they think it
quite practicable to raise such a race, possessed of the
necessary fixity of character. They still look to England for
their supplies of Thoroughbreds and Norfolk Trotters " ; but,
as we shall read, they have in recent years succeeded in their
object of establishing breeds of their own.

35

These Crown studs in Hungary are conducted upon a

very large scale. At Mezoheyges there were upwards of 650

broodmares. Colonel Horvath, the officer in charge of the

latter stud, addressed to Professor Wrightson a letter of great

interest, which shows how the Hungarians have succeeded in

establishing fixed breeds of saddle-horses.

"The race of horses is throughout half-bred. We have had two
studs of half-blood Arabian mares since the years 1825 and 1827 ; two
studs of English mares (Furiosa and Abugress) since the years 1841 and
1842 ; also the family of Nonius, obtained from France in 1S15 ; two studs
of the ancient blood of Lippieza, which is a mixture of Spanish and Arabian
blood, since the year 1807 ; and lately we have begun to form a stud of
Norfolk blood with stallions of that race and mares of different indigenous
families."

Colonel Horvath proceeds to give the numbers of the
mares of the several strains he has named. At that time
there were at the stud he directed 136 half-blood Arabs, 148
English, 113 mares of various strains from Lippieza, 220
Nonius or Anglo-Norman mares, and 33 of the Norfolk
mares as the beginning of a stud of this breed. The stallions
used included English Thoroughbred, pure Arabs or half-breds
belonging to the families named.

Colonel Horvath states that the principle kept in view in
breeding suitable stallions is very simple. It is the gradual
improvement of a family by the introduction of nobler and
higher blood, while at the same time the type of the family is
retained. Where more blood is wanted full-blood horses are
used according to the previous breeding of the particular family.
The produce, when strong enough, is served once more by a
Thoroughbred, and then the breeder resorts again to a sire of
the original strain of the family. It is, in fact, a system of
breeding from half-bred stock, with the occasional use of
Thoroughbreds when there is a tendency to coarseness.

Colonel Horvath was asked this question, " Do you hope'
to establish fixed or permanent half-bred races which may be
bred truly intev se ? " and the answer was : " The families of
Nonius, Majestosa (Lippieza blood), Gidran and Schagya
(Arab blood) are already constant. Furiosa and Abugress
(English Thoroughbred) and Norfolk breeds will require 10 or
12 years more of careful breeding."

36

I should explain that the Nonius strain derives its name
from a famous sire of that name which was procured from
France in the year 1815. The original Nonius was got by an
English horse named Orion out of a mare of the Anglo-Norman
breed ; which breed was largely built up on Norfolk Trotter
blood. To what breed Orion belonged I have not been
able to discover ; the name does not occur in the lists of
Thoroughbreds sent abroad which are printed in the General
Stud Book.

There were few more interesting stables at the Paris
International Show in September last than that of the Hungarian
Government. The horses had been selected to illustrate the
results of the cross-breeding system described ; and these
furnished living proof of the sound, practical wisdom which
directs stud operations in Hungary. Among them were horses
the very model of what the fifteen-stone Hunter should be, and
perfectly shaped carriage-horses. The best were perhaps
those of Nonius (Norfolk Trotter) and North Star (Thorough-
bred) strains.

On the estate of the Archduke Albrecht, in Lower
Hungary, there are imported Clydesdales ; but, with this
exception, no other horses but Thoroughbreds and Norfolk
Trotters were to be seen from Britain. Reviewing all he
had seen during his ten weeks tour. Professor Wrightson
says, "The result of much observation was to show me
that the best horses in Hungary are descended from English
stock."

A number of the stallions foaled every year at the Royal
studs and about 200 yearlings, which are purchased annually at
an average price of 235 florins (^23 105.), are set apart and
reared with the view of use as public stallions. At the age of
three years these are inspected and classified ; about one-half
the number are rejected as stallions and cut ; the best, to the
proportion of about 20 per cent., are kept for service in the
Royal studs, and 25 per cent, are sold as " Communal
stallions " ; death accounts for the remaining four or five per
cent, of the total.

37

The Communal stallions are sold to the chiefs of the
agricultural divisions known as Communes at prices varying
from ^30 to ^50, payable in four annual instalments. Each
Commune undertakes to maintain its stallion at its own
expense and in a suitable manner, the proper discharge of its
obligations being the care of one or two Government officials.
The stallion is available for service within the limits of the
Commune at a maximum fee of two florins (four shillings). In
one part of Hungary the method of service is similar to that in
vogue in this country ; in another it is usual to turn out the
stallion with the mares, which may not number more than
eighty-eight.

Should the horse not be kept in a proper manner, he is,
after repeated cautions, liable to be withdrawn from the
Commune at the end of the third year, and the Commune
forfeits the instalments of the price paid. If the stallion dies
or fails as a stock-getter during the first three years, the
authorities replace him by another. At the end of the third
year he becomes the property of the Commune, which is then
able to dispose of him as it pleases. Many Communes believe
it advantageous to change their stallion every three years,
which they can do in accordance with the regulation that
makes him then their own property. The wisdom of this step
of course depends upon circumstances.

The estimates for the Hungarian Horse-Breeding Depart-
ment for the year 1897 amounted to ;^233,333.

38

Horse-Breeding i\ Austria

In the year 1876 a Committee of Inquiry on Horse-
Breeding was appointed by the Austrian Government, and the
result of its investigations was the division of the whole country
into five districts, with the view of providing stallions suited
to the varying requirements of each. From Central Depots in
each of these five districts over 2,000 stallions are distributed
among 522 stations, each station accommodating from one to
ten stallions. There are no fewer than thirteen different breeds
of horse in use, and care is taken that each station shall
receive a stallion or stallions suited to local requirements.

In fulfilment of the scheme suggested by this Com-
mittee, good local breeds are retained pure, approved stallions
of each being used for public service ; in districts where
the local breed have degenerated or stand in need of
improvement, the stallions are carefully chosen to raise the
general standard. Thus Thoroughbreds of English descent
but bred in the country are used on strong mares to supply
Remounts. In other districts Roadster, Clydesdale, and Suffolk
stallions are sent to be mated with mares of a class to throw
heavy artillery riding and draught horses.

In the mountainous regions, where small, active, and hardy
horses are required for draught and pack work, every endeavour
is made to keep the local breed pure. The Pinzauev horses are
highly spoken of for such work in hilly districts ; they are \ery
strong and hardy, and have good action ; the lighter class trot
quite well enough to perform heavy carriage work over bad
ground. Their colour is peculiar — white or light, " splashed ''
with dark spots.

In 1897 the Austrian State stud included, among other
stallions, 94 English Thoroughbreds, 766 English Half-breds,
and 208 Hackneys.

39

Special inducements are held out to private breeders
to keep brood-mares, and prizes for mares and young stock
are freely offered. The regulations concerning privately-
owned stallions vary in various provinces of Austria ; but,
broadly, it may be said that private stallions are only
encouraged if suitable for stud purposes. Such horses are
licensed ; the horse in some parts must be inspected once a
month during the covering season. Anyone who uses an un-
licensed stallion to cover mares other than his own, whether
for a fee or gratis ; or knowingly allows a mare to be covered
by an unlicensed stallion ; or suffers entire colts of one year
old or more to pasture with mares of any age, is liable to a
fine equal to ;^8 65. Sd.

In addition to the five Central Depots there are two State
breeding-studs. These are maintained for the purpose of
producing stallions for public service ; one is at Radautz and
the other at Fiber. At Radautz there are over a thousand
animals, including about 250 brood-mares. Pains are taken
to keep all the young stock at Radautz in condition ; they are
kept as much as possible in the open air, and are exercised
for at least three hours daily by mounted drovers, who are
assisted by dogs.

During the summer, from May to September, the young
horses are driven to the hills or on to distant wild ground,
and left to their own devices. At the age of three years the
young horses are taken in hand and broken, and those
stallions which are considered suitable for service are got into
condition and distributed among the Central Depots in their
fourth year.

There are, in addition to these two breeding-studs,
establishments at Kladrub and Lippieza, where carriage-
horses are bred. The Kladruber horses are very large and
showy animals, with great action ; they are descended from
Spanish and Italian stock, but careful mating for generations
has greatly increased their size, which is now often as much
as 17 hands 2 inches. These horses are chiefly used in the
Royal carriages on State occasions.

40

The Lippizienne horses have marked character of their
own, having been obtained from Spanish, Italian, and Arab
stock, carefully crossed. They are long-bodied, short-legged
horses, with good quarters, legs and feet, and stand from 15 to
16 hands. They make remarkably good carriage-horses, being
very handsome, hardy, and fast.

The covering fees in Austria range from 15. Sd. to 165. 8d.
for ordinary stallions ; in some very poor districts mares are
covered by the State horses free of charge. Her horse-breeding
operations cost Austria ^140,000 a year.

41

Horse-Breeding in Italy

For stud purposes the country is divided into seven
■districts, which include 402 covering stations, each accommo-
dating one or more stalHons. Only eight of these stations
receive four or more sires, the large majority receiving one or
two. In 1903 there were 586 Government stallions distributed
among the covering stations ; this total comprised 71 English
Thoroughbreds, 55 i\rabs, 13 Anglo-Arabs, 404 Hackney and
half-breds, and 43 heavy draught-horses. These figures show
that the strength of the Italian studs was the same as in
1895. The number of Arabs had been reduced, while the
number of draught-horses had been increased.

With the object of ensuring uniformity, it is con-
sidered advisable to keep the same stallions at one covering
station as long as possible.

With the exception of one or two Thoroughbreds, whose
services are only requisitioned by wealthy owners of racing-
stock, the service fees are low, though higher than in most
Continental countries. In 1903, 24,337 mares were served by
Government horses at a fee of 95. 7^/. each ; 660 at £\ each ;
50 at £\ I2S. ; 75 at £2 55.; 39 at £'i 4s.; 21 at £"4 ; and
29 at £^1. The War Department buys Remounts at 3 and 4
years old, paying, on the average, ^24 for three-year-olds, and
;^32 for four-year-olds. The horses so purchased are sent to
one of the Remount Depots, and are issued to regiments when
\\ years old perfectly unbroken. About 4,000 young horses
are annually purchased by the Remount Committees.

Stallions owned by private persons may be licensed for
public service. The task of examining horses and granting
licences is entrusted to local committees ; from time to time
it has been found necessary to remind these committees that
greater care must be taken in passing stallions; in 1893 ^
Royal decree was issued directing that vice or defects of

42

conformation should disqualify any stallion from receiving a
licence to serve.

The greater stringency exercised as a result of this decree
brought about a considerable decrease in the number of
" Approved " stallions ; but of late years, owing, no doubt, to
the improvement in the stock obtained, the total has increased.
In 1895, 645 private stallions were approved for licence; in
1903 the number was 740. The largest number of these (246)
are "native horses without other description" {indigeni
senz'altra indicazione) ; next in point of number (136) come
English " quarter- breds " {himeticci) ; and then American horses
" without special description " {senza indicazioni speciali), 80 in
number. English Thoroughbreds and Hackney stallions in
private hands in 1903 numbered 41 each.

Colonel Needham, in a report written some years ago,
states that the great defect of the Italian horse is want of size
and substance ; but he admits that the cavalry horses show
great endurance when carrying heavy weight and performing
long marches. I have dealt with the superior endurance of
the small horse over the large one elsewhere.'''

Italy spends annually about ^80,000 net on horse-
breeding.

* Small Hurses In Warfare. By Sir Walter Gilbev, Bart.
Vinton & Co. igoo.

43

Horse-Breeding in Russia

In no European country is more attention devoted to the
breeding of horses than in Russia. The oldest Imperial stud
now in existence is that at Derkulski, established in 1750 ;
but, without reviewing the history of the Russian horse-
breeding department, it may be said that it has been an object
of solicitude to successive sovereigns for the last 400 years.
Ivan III., who reigned during the last forty years of the
fifteenth century, established the first Government stud of
which there is record near Moscow, and compelled all great
landed proprietors to establish breeding-studs.

The Government maintains about 1,100 stallions at 15
studs and depots ; from these depots the horses are distributed
among covering stations all over the country, wherever horse-
breeding has place among the local industries. As in other
countries, the number of stallions at each covering station
varies in accordance with the needs of the district. They
vary in number from two to nine, but four is the usual
complement.

In addition to these studs and depots there are 29
other breeding establishments, particulars of which are not
at present obtainable.

The fees charged for service range from the equivalent of
35. 2d. to ^2 75. 6d., in ratio with the merits of the stallion
selected ; each mare is allowed three leaps, if necessary, but
not more ; the covering season lasts from the 3rd February to
1 8th June. The stallions are put to service at five years old,
and in their first season are restricted to 40 mares ; when six
years old they are permitted to cover 60 mares, and in very
exceptional cases as many as 90. Stallions which are old, but
still capable of service, are given away on condition that the
recipient uses them for stud work.

44

Since the year 1862, shows for all horses bred in Russia
have been held annually; about ^22,500 is given annually
in prizes, and honorary awards are also distributed. The 26
Turf Societies in Russia receive among them ^14,000 a year,
to be given in stakes. Horse fairs are encouraged ; there are
460 of these in various parts of the country, at which some
300,000 horses change hands annually.

A memorandum supplied me in February, 1905, by the
Military Attache at St. Petersburg contains the most recent
information accessible concerning the Russian studs. The
figures refer to the year i88g. The Government "studs" in
Russia, it must be understood, are really breeding farms.
They are as follows : —

(i) The Khrenovoi or Krenovsky stud, in the \"eronig
Government, of four divisions : — (a) English Thoroughbreds,
115 head; (b) Trotters, 338 head; (c) Hunters and Trotters,
60 head ; and (d) Draught horses, 38 head. This stud was
purchased in 1845 from the daughter of Count Alexis Orloff,
the descendant of the noble who founded the famous breed of
trotting-horses known by his name. It is also celebrated for
the Rostophschine breed of Trotters wdiich was founded by
Count Rostophschine, a contemporary of the founder of the
Orloff breed. Khrenovoi is a stallion depot as well as a
breeding stud.

(2) The Bielovodsk stud in the Kharkov Government.

(3) The Novo Alexandrovsk stud, where half-bred horses
are produced ; the head of stock here in i88g was 445 head.

(4) The Streletz or Streletzki stud, which consists of
two divisions : — (a) Riding-horses, 408 head ; and (b) Arabs,
81 head. The Streletz stud has given its name to a breed
which differs only in its superior size from the Eastern-bred
Arab. The Streletz horses, shown at Paris in September,
I goo, were among the exhibits that attracted most attention.
The object of this establishment is the production of light
riding-horses of average height with an Eastern strain, chiefly

45

for improving the steppe horses and the breeds of South
Western Russia.

(5) The Derkulski stud, referred to on page 41 as the
oldest in Russia, is devoted to the breeding of Draught
horses (23 head in 1889), steppe and heavy cart-borses. It
was formerly given up to the breeding of carriage-horses.

(6) The Limarveo or Limarevski stud, for half-bred
riding-horses ; and

(7) The Jarrow or Yanovski stud, where English Thorough-
breds (187 head) and half-bred riding-horses are bred.

The total number of stallions, mares and foals at these
seven studs in 1889 '^^^^ 2,510.

For more than a century the Russian Government and
private owners have imported Thoroughbreds from England.
The English Thoroughbred stallion Grey Diomed and four
mares formed the foundation stock of the Golowkowa stud in
1794. Traveller and Orelius, son of Eclipse, were imported
in 1799, Doncaster in 1810, Cerberus in 1812, Memnon,
winner of the St. Leger of 1825, a few years later. In 1833
a special mission was sent to England to buy stock ; the
stallions Birmingham, Middleton and Admiral were purchased,
and numerous mares, among them Lalla Rookh, Executrice,
Tweedlewings (by Touchstone), Metal (by Glaucus), and
Marchioness. Mr. Kirby of York, says "The Druid," began
his business with the Russians in 1791, when he was 21, and
repeated his visits till he reached the age of 60, taking with
him "the choicest blood of Y^orkshire." The highest prices
Mr. Kirby ever received from the Czar Nicholas (1825-1855)
were 2,000 guineas for Van Tromp, and 2,250 for General
Chasse.

The Imperial studs are directed with great judgment ; the
utmost care is exercised in the choice of forage ; all horses are
exercised regularly every day, and young horses when ^^ years
old are tested for strength and staying-power according to
their class and breeding. No mare is given up to breeding
until she is five years old and is fully developed.

46

Attached to each Government stud farm is a school of
horsemanship, where breeders receive instruction in the
principles of the industry, and where riding is taught. At
Khrenovoi is a special school where trainers, jockeys, hunts-
men and coachmen are taught the best methods of training
young horses.

Private enterprise is encouraged in every way, and very
many of the Russian nobility maintain large breeding-studs on
their estates. At Slawuta, Prince Sanguszko has, or had,
a stud of pure-bred Eastern horses, which, Mons. Salvi
observes, show to what a pitch of perfection the typical Arab
may be brought when wisely mated, well nourished, and
reared under favourable conditions ; " it has the height, bone,
and spirit of an Irish horse, and yet is the Bedouin horse,
preserving all its Eastern characteristics, but bigger and
stronger." Many private owners devote their attention
entirely to the Anglo-Arab. At least one, however, makes a
speciality of carriage-horses, which he has succeeded in bringing
to a high standard, using Mecklenburg stallions upon Eastern
mares.

The twelve regiments of Horse Guards and 8th (Reserve)
Cavalry Brigade, are horsed from the Imperial studs, as the
steppe-bred animals are not powerful enough to carry the men.

About 7,200 horses are required annually for the Russian
cavalry of the line, and for information concerning these we
cannot do better than turn to Captain H. Hayes' excellent
book." There are seven "brigade stations" to which the
Remount officers send the young horses which they buy from
the breeders ; these horses have run wild, or half wild, on the
steppes until caught for sale, and their entire education is carried
out by the regimental breakers. They cost on the average
about £i-^ 5^., but by the time they are fit to take their places
in the ranks have cost about ^37 each. Dragoon Remounts
must not be less than 14.2-I in height, and are bought from the

* Among Horses in Russia. By Captain M. H. Hayes. R. A. Everett
& Co., London, 1900.

47

age of 3 off to rising 5. Captain Hayes says of a batch of 800
Remounts which had been sent in by the buyers a few days
before : —

" As these dragoon Remounts average about 15.17, they are somewhat
small, and to English eyes would probably appear at first sight rather
light ; but closer inspection shows that they have capital bone, are
compactly built, and have no superfluous lumber to carry. They are,
with very few exceptions, entirely free from cart blood, and consequentlj^,
if their fore-legs in some cases seem a bit deficient below the knee, the
back tendons run more or less parallel to the cannon bone, and we find
no coarseness about the fetlocks, which is evidence of inability to stand
work under the saddle. These Russian Remounts have, as a rule, short
backs, muscular loins, good feet, fairly small heads, and are well ribbed
up. They are particularly good across the loins, which is a point that
receives much attention from Russian breeders. Formerly the horses of
the Don, from which country the best Remounts are obtained, were
generally "back at the knees" — "calf-kneed" — but this defect has been
almost entirely eliminated by careful crossing. The members of the
selection committees, which pass or reject the animals brought up by the
buyers of Remounts, are specially critical as regards the quality of the
pasterns. On the whole, they have very good fore-legs. Their shoulders
are inclined to be short ; but their worst point is undoubtedly their hocks,
which in many instances are weak, too much bent (sickle-hooked) or
inclined to curb. These Remounts, especially those which come from the
country of the Don, have a strong infusion of Arab blood, with a dash of
the Thoroughbred. They are essentially saddle-horses bred for cavalry
purposes ; the Russian horses are reared under conditions of pri\'ation
and hard work to get their living, and are consequently more useful as
slaves and campaigners than they appear to be."

With regard to Captain Hayes' reference to Arab and
Thoroughbred blood, it must be observed that four ''■'■ of the
fifteen Imperial stallion depots are situated in the horse-
breedin^j reccions of the Don.

* Khrenovoi (distributing 100 stallions) ; Tambov (6oj ; Kharkov
and .Saratov (50).

■ 48

Horse-Breeding in Turkey

The Ottoman Government possesses four important studs,
all of which are situated in Asia Minor and are organised on
lines similar to the great Hungarian establishments, Mezoheyges,
Babolna, &c., and which are under the control of the Minister
for War.

The Tchifteler stud, situated in the province of Brousse,
on the sea of Marmora, was established in the year 1832 ; the
lands, covering over 29,600 acres, consist of somewhat \'aried
pasture and of vast prairies watered by three streams. After
the Crimean War a thousand mares were received at Tchifteler
from the English and French armies, and these, like the animals
already at the farm, were allowed to range at liberty until the
year 1886, when nearly the whole stock perished through
drought.

In 1886 three hundred Hungarian mares of inferior and
unsuitable strains w^ere sent to this stud ; these were kept under
cover, but the native mares and their produce continued to roam
at large. As stable accommodation was built, however, the
latter were housed, as well as fifty brood mares which had
been purchased in Russia.

Since 1892 Arab blood has been introduced, and only since
this step was taken the Tchifteler stud has been able to furnish
annually over a hundred good and efficient Remounts. The
progress made has, however, been continuous, and this year the
total number available for the Army will be three hundred.

The Arab stud consists of ^^ stallions of pure blood and
eleven half-bred stallions got by Arabs out of native mares ;
there are ten pure Arab mares, and 188 half-bred mares.

In addition to these, there are 91 native stallions and six
Normans, which were bought in 1900, 13 Hungarian, and

49

1 1 Russian stallions. There were last year 660 brood mares
and fillies, of which 35 were Russian, 93 Hungarian and
the remainder native-bred.

The officer in charge of the stud is a Colonel, who has
under him a military staff.

The second stud is that of Sultan Sou, between 18 and 16
miles from the town of Malatia, in the province of Harpout, in
the interior. It controls an area about 600 miles square,
which includes 32 villages, having some 5,000 inhabitants ;
part of this area is given up to agriculture and the remainder is
devoted to horse-breeding.

The Sultan Sou stud was founded in 1861 and was
reorganised in 1889; attached to it is another farm — that of
Osman Dide— where there are enormous hill pastures, to which
the droves of horses are sent in summer. There are at
Sultan Sou 12 pure Arab stallions, 6 Kurdish and i Hungarian ;
7 pure Arab mares, 21 Kurdish and 12 Hungarians. The
object of this establishment is the improvement of the Kurdish
breed of horses : the number of Kurdish brood mares will this
year be increased to 200 ; how many mares of this strain are
running at large in the district is unknown.

The Tehoukourova stud owes its name to a once famous
breed of horses which is said to be now nearly extinct. It is
situated in the province of Adana, which is bounded on the south
by the Mediterranean, and consists of two vast estates, one
covering 197,680 acres, or about 20,000 acres more than the
county of Middlesex, and the other covering about 74,160
acres. The larger estate consists of prairie land comparable to
the pampas of South America ; the second, and less extensive,
lies on the shores of the Mediterranean, and along the mouth
of the river Djihan which flows into it.

This stud was established in 1892. There are now eight
pure Arab stallions, three Kurdish, and five horses described as
" Anatoliotes," obviously after the province of Anatolia in
Western Asia Minor. There are 21 pure Arab mares and 62 of
the Tehoukourova breed. Many native horses also run at large

50

on the two estates. The special object of this stud is to
re-estabhsh the Tehoukourova breed. It is under the direction
of a Colonel of the Turkish Army, who, besides a civil staff,
has a troop of cavalry under him.

The Vezirie stud farm covers about 131,780 acres, and lies
close to the city of Bagdad, between the rivers Tigris and
Diala. This stud, which is under the direction of a General of
Brigade, was founded in the year 1896, and the progress made
so far does not appear to have been very great. The stock
last year consisted of 10 stallions and 57 mares, all pure Arabs,
the object of the Vezirie establishment being the production
of Arabs of the best strains. Endeavours are made every
year to buy the best young horses from the wandering tribes-
men, but good ones are rarely obtainable ; in 1900 it was hoped
that one hundred would be secured, but three foals and one filly
of the highest stamp w^ere all that the director of the stud was
able to buy from the tribesmen.

Local covering stations are established in various districts,,
and these are supplied with stallions from the four large
Government studs ; and pure bred Arab stallions are often lent
to village communities far distant from the stud headquarters
for the sole purpose of improving the breed of horses.

Whether service fees are charged or service is rendered
free does not appear from the information which has been
kindly placed at the writer's disposal by the French Minister
of Agriculture.

Each stud has a stud-book, which contains the guarantees
and proofs given by the sheiks in respect of the horses obtained
from the tribesmen. These warranties are verified by the
Inspectors who travel in the interior and pay regular visits to
the tribes in question.

51

Horse-Breeding in India

OPINIONS OF THE LATE VETERINARY COLONEL H ALLEN

The first endeavours to improve the native breeds of horses
Avere begun by the East India Company in the year 1794,
and the " Stud Department " then estabHshed continued in
■existence until 1876, when it was abolished. This institution
had accomplished a certain measure of success ; some excellent
horses were bred there, and were drafted into the stables of
our cavalry regiments ; but experience showed that the results
achieved were not commensurate with the cost of maintaining
the studs, and in the year named (1876) the Department
was abolished and the Army Remount and Horse-Breeding
Departments were created.

The " Department of Army Remounts " had for its duty the
selection and purchase of Australian and Persian horses in the
local markets, and also of as many suitable country-breds as
might be procurable. The Department of Horse-Breeding
Operations was organised with the object of encouraging
productions of suitable country-bred horses ; and it is to
this Department that we direct our attention.

In a remarkably able and instructive paper ''■'- by the late
Veterinary Colonel J. H. B. Hallen, the then General Super-
intendent of Horse-Breeding Operations in India, we find the
plan of the new scheme clearly laid down. It was, broadly
speaking, to establish a native breed of horses, which should in
course of time render the Army in India independent of foreign
markets. The Government was to maintain a supply of
stallions of the classes most suitable for improving the native
breeds ; only selected native mares were to be eligible for
service (always gratis) by the Government stallions, these

* Government Hoyse-Breeding in India : Past, Present, and Future. (Read
at a meeting of the United Service Institution of India, 6th May, 1887.)

52

inares being branded to prove their right to service, and also
to prevent their purchase by native cavalry or police horse
buyers. A system of prize-giving at fairs and shows, with
some slight advantages to the prodvice of branded mares, was
instituted ; some assistance was to be given in teaching and
encouraging the practice of castration among native breeders ;
and all horses fit for Army service were to be purchased at
remunerative prices by Government.

The number of Remounts required for horse and field
artillery, British and native cavalry, amount, on the average,
to 4,630, including a reserve of 1,000 horses, each year.

For all reasons, both political and economical, it has
always been held most desirable that India should produce the
horses necessary to mount both British and native cavalry, and
to horse the artillery. Colonel Hallen gave a list of thirteen
breeds of Indian horses (excluding the x\rab and Persian)^ all
of which he described as " possessing good powers of endur-
ance, and showing thereby hlood, but generally wanting in size,
and many too small for the work of the Indian Army, consti-
tuted as it now is ; though some of purely local breeds can be
found fit for native cavalry." In another paper " Colonel
Hallen described these breeds with more exactness : —

" The majority of country-bred mares may be said to range in height
from 13 hands 2 inches to 14 hands 2 inches, and some few are found as
"high as 15 hands, and in weight from 6 to 8 cwts. They are, as a rule,
remarkably well-bred, rather light in barrel, not evenly put together, often
of an angular and ragged appearance, with small but steel-like bone of joints
and limbs, and measuring from 6{ to 7^ inches under the knee at the top
of the shank bone. They have wonderful powers of endurance under
either tropical sun heat or intense cold, with a light weight, say from 10
to 12 stones in saddle or light draught, and after the hardest day's work
are never off their feed, but always ready for it ; moreover, they will
continue doing work on the scantiest of food."

Colonel Hallen observed that these mares offer a grand
structure on which to engraft more power and size — that,
indeed, a more suitable basis to work on could not be desired.

It may be observed that the officers in charge of the Indian

* Horses requiird fay the Indian Army: (Read at a meeting of the
United Service Institution of India, 25th August, 1888.)

53

horse-breeding operations have pecuHar difficulties to contend
against. The native disincHnation to castrate had to be over-
come to prevent the excessive use of weedy sires ; in a country
whose fields are unfenced, and where horse-stealing is (in
some regions) common, the natives could not give their young
stock the degree of liberty necessary for their full development.
The practice of closely hobbling, or even chaining and
padlocking the fore-legs together, was universal, and the
natural result was deformity of limb, narrowness of chest,
and ruined action. In recent years, however, castration has
been more favourably regarded, and the beneficial effects of
allowing larger liberty to young stock has been increasingly
recognised.

To gain greater size and power the Government sanctioned
in 1876 the purchase of 300 stallions, and, with an eye to the
lack of substance displayed by native mares, roadster blood
was largely introduced. These 300 stallions were sanctioned
merely as a beginning ; the number was increased as the
new scheme developed. In the year 1886 the Indian stud
was composed of the following stallions: — 90 English
Thoroughbreds, 159 Hackneys and Norfolk Trotters, 146
Arabs, 10 stud-bred horses, 6 Australian Thoroughbreds,
2 Turkoman stallions and i Persian. In addition to these,
pony stallions were provided in suitable districts, under the
control of District Committees, to cover small and unbranded
mares. Some 19,588 branded {i.e., officially approved) mares
■were on the registers in 1886. In the year 1900 the number
of stallions was returned at 384.

For some few years after the new system was inaugurated
endeavours were made to buy full-grown horses for immediate
use as Remounts, but with little success. A change was
therefore made, and in 1881 the purchase annually of 150
horses aged 2| years and upwards was sanctioned. This plan
gave satisfactory results, and it was extended, young horses
being purchased in larger numbers and distributed among the
rearing depots, Hapur, Kurnal and Ahmednuggur, to be kept

54

and trained for ultimate issue as Remounts. From 1889 one
thousand young horses have been purchased every year, but
when the number was thus increased it was found necessary
to take the animals at a much earlier age, and the minimum
was, in the year mentioned, fixed at six months.

It must be added, in this connection, that the question
of mounting the native cavalry had in 1889 reached an acute
stage.'''

Colonel Hallen's description of the stock got by the
several imported breeds of stallion is exceedingly instructive.
It will be borne in mind that his observations were made after
the new system had been twelve years in operation, and there
had been, therefore, time to see what impression had been
made on the native stock.

The animal got by the English Thoroughbred

"is, as a rule, handsome in top and outlines of back, hind quarters, and
carriage of head and tail, but is often shallow in girth and back rib, light
in barrel, and from 70 to So per cent, are leggy and deficient in bone of
limb. Diseases of legs are more common among Thoroughbred stock —
e.g., curb, bone spavin, bog spavin and ring-bone are not infrequently
shown. Few of this stock prove fit for British cavalry, and hardly one
for horse or field artillery, but some are purchased for native cavalry.
Many native breeders are distrustful of this class of sire, as they find their
stock do not realise a good price in the market."

Of the stock got by Australian sires, which are English
Thoroughbreds foaled and reared in the Colony —

" The young stock often prove better-boned in limb than the stock of
imported Thoroughbreds from England, but in other points are similar
to the stock of the English Thoroughbreds."

Turning to the Report of Colonel Oueripel, the Inspector-
General, ten years after the foregoing remarks were written,
we find the complaint that English Thoroughbreds of the
stamp required to get Remounts grow scarcer and harder to
obtain each recurring year. " Breeders aim at long-legged,
striding animals," which are exactly what India does not
require ; and, though treated with the most jealous care, the
English Thoroughbred is liable to develop unsoundness in

* Opinions on the Supply of Remounts to British and Native Cavalry, and on
Horse-breeding in India ; expressed at an Informal Meeting held at Simla on
20th August, i88g.

55

so hot and dry a climate. Specific objection is made to their

feet, which " appear to be getting smaller and weaker every

year." In Beluchistan, which has the driest climate of any

region in which the Department conducts its work, the dryness

and rock soil combine to ruin their feet, which. Colonel

Queripel says, " break away until there is absolutely nothing

left." On the other hand, a better stamp of Australian

Thoroughbred had been obtainable in small numbers ; seven

imported during the official year 1897-8 were between 15.2

and 15.3^^ in height, girthed from 68 to 72^ inches, and only

one had less than eight inches of bone below the knee.

Reverting to Colonel Hallen's paper of 1888, that officer

said of the Hackneys and Trotters : —

" These have, with country -bred mares, produced stock of good bone
and power, pro\ing suitable and sufficiently well-bred for Army work in
India. I may mention that, as a rule, most of the best-boned stock in the
late Stud Department had half-bred blood in them. The Special Stud
Commissioners bore this fact in mind, and advised the employing of more
half-bred sires, these to be of pure breeds and showing quality.* Some of
the half-bred sires that had been imported from England were, in the
opinion of the Commissioners, of not sufficient quality, but they found
their produce proving excellent for artillery purposes. I, of course, do not
wish to imply that every stillion has proved a success ; but I do most
distinctly affirm that at least go per cent, of the half-bred sires have fully
realised the expectations formed of them."

After referring to the prejudice with which these horses
were first regarded by men accustomed only to the Thorough-
bred and Arab, Colonel Hallen said : —

" The practical results of horse-breeding that ha\e obtained and are
obtaining in India, indicate that such horses (horses capable of doing good
work by having bleed, bone, and power to enable them to carry and
draw the heavy weights of British cavalrv and artillery) cannot be produced
from the present country-bred mares bv mating them with Thoroughbred
or Arab stock ; that very few per cent, of Remounts so bred prove fit for
those branches of the service ; but we are having, day by day, more proof
that the produce of these mares by half-bred English horses (or, as they
are now called in England, Hackneys) of pure breed, is well adapted for
general army work in India, thus indicating that the more this class of sire
— the uvll-bred half-bred — is employed, a greater chance will be afforded of
securing larger-framed country-bred brood stock, which in turn will yield
still larger framed and boned produce. The mares of this impro\-ed and
developed stock may in time become large enough in bulk to allow of their
being mated to Arab sires, should it be deemed desirable to add more
quality and compactness in bone with powers of endurance, which are the
well-known characteristics of the true Arab."

* In writing of pure breeds. Colonel Hallen means those breeds which
have .Stud Books in England.

56

Colonel Hallen added that when his employment in stud
work began in the Bombay Presidency, 26 years previously,
he believed it right to use Thoroughbred and Arab stallions on
the country -bred mares.

" I have now to confess that on visiting, three \ears ago, one of the
best breeding districts in the Bombay Presidency, and attending an
annual horse show held there, I found the stock resulting from the use of
these sires, though very handsome in top and pretty in carriage of head
and tail, lamentably deficient in bone and sinew of limb. The Director
of the Armv Remount Department was present, with the hope of finding
Remounts, but he did not succeed in seeing one fit for the British services ;
I belie\-e that not one country-bred Remount for the British services has
been secured in the Bombay Presidency. Alay I, therefore, ask you to
remember that Thoroughbred and Arab stallions have brought about this
result. . . We should, I believe, rely on the pure half-bred* of England
as a sire to give more bone and substance to our stock."

Colonel Hallen ceased to direct the horse-breeding opera-
tions of India some fourteen years ago, and the opinions to
which his long experience had brought him not having been
shared by his successors the Thoroughbred policy has been
resumed. The Report for 1897-8 says that some 60 horses
got by English Thoroughbreds (or about one for each stallion !)
were issued as Remounts to British cavalry.

A curious commentary on the relative merits of the
produce got by the different breeds of stallion in use is
furnished by the officials of the Department themselves. I
am indebted to Colonel Biddulph for a copy of the " Figures
of Merit " showing " The Percentage of Prizes Won by Each
Class According to the Number of Stallions Employed."
These figures cover the si.\ official years, 1886- 1892, and show
the stock by " Half-Bred English " or Hackney sires easily
first, the Australian stallions taking second place, and the
English Throughbreds third. Figures relating to subsequent
years, I am informed, show the Thoroughbreds imported from
Australia in the first place.

It may be observed that the original scheme, in the
opinion of some good authorities, never had a fair chance.
Apart from the absence of continuity of method, which alone
would most seriously retard progress in the desired direction,,

* Known in England as the Hackney breed.

57

it was considered that the main purpose of the scheme was
subverted at the outset.

The infinitely more important branch, the Horse-
Breeding Department, with its larger aims, was subordinated
to the Remount Department, whose purpose was the
immediate provision of horses for the x-Vrmy ; and as a natural
result, the objects of the latter become paramount. The
Remount agents and committees made it their business to buy
as cheaply as they could ; it was their duty to do so ; but this
policy of cheapening a commodity it was particularly desired
to improve was, on the face of it, a fatal mistake ; it discouraged
native breeders instead of encouraging them.

At the meeting held at Simla on August 30, 1889, to
which reference has been made on page 55, the Director of
Land Records for the Punjaub said that the method of pur-
chasing horses pursued by the Indian Government had a bad
effect ; that native owners of good large mares fit to produce
Remounts had begun to sell these animals, and were purchasing
pony mares to produce ponies and mules. We have seen on
what very different lines the German Government goes to
work.

Our national love of sport makes its effect felt in India as
it does in England, and the effect is not a good one. There is
in India always a ready market and a high price awaiting the
animal suitable for racing or for polo ; and thus the breeder's
ambition is to produce such a horse or pony, and to ignore the
animal suitable for military use. Opinions are divided con-
cerning the effect the temptation to produce a racing or polo
pony has upon horse-breeding as an industry in Northern
India ; but such authorities as Colonel Hallen and General
Luck regard it as a factor which must be reckoned with.

In this connection, one great difficulty that makes for
failure of the most wisely directed endeavour must be borne in
mind. The three hundred stallions employed by the Indian
Government are scattered over thinly populated regions, and
in charge of natives ; and it seems to be generally admitted

58

that the natives in charge of these stalhons cannot be depended
on to refuse service to unbranded mares if a trifling present be
offered by the owners of such mares. P^urther, when there are
two stalhons at a local covering station it usually happens that
the native owners of mares give their preference to one to the
exclusion of the other ; whereby the favourite does all the work,
even being brought out several times in the same day. Hence
the popular stallions are liable to be overworked, and serve
many mares which are of a stamp not at all likely to throw
good foals.

Owing to these difficulties and errors of policy the
establishment of a native breed, the work of many years under
the most favourable conditions, has never been seriously
attempted, and the production of Remounts for immediate
use has been made the objective of the Horse-Breeding
Department. It was impossible that its work under these
circumstances should have succeeded as it would have done
had those in control been able to ignore the question of an
immediate supply of Remounts. Horse-breeding, it may be
suggested, is essentially an agricultural business, and therefore
one to be undertaken by a civil department ; the business of
procuring Remounts for troops, on the other hand, is essentially
a soldier's task. The error lay in the attempt to combine the
two.

Of the Arab sire Colonel Hallen considered his small size
is the only point in his disfavour. It had been Colonel Hallen's
hope to gradually grade up with the Hackney and Trotter cross
large-boned and sizeable mares ; and he looked to these to throw
to Arab sires animals of the right stamp for the Remount
Department.

It must not be forgotten that climate and the pre\'ailing
normal conditions of life are paramount in determining what
the size and character of the horse of any given country shall
be. In temperate climes, with good feed, horses of great size
can be produced and depended on to maintain their size. In
very hot, dry countries, which offer comparatively poor feed,

59

such as Arabia, Persia, and Northern India, as described by-
Colonel Hallen, we find the native races small, wiry and active ;
and, again, in cold regions we find the smallest and most
stunted horses.

Only within certain limits, to be ascertained by years of
costly experiment, can we hope by cross-breeding to override
the natural laws which determine the size of the horse of any
country without materially impairing its valuable qualities, if
we can succeed in doing so at all. In India, the old Stud
Department, for various reasons, failed to establish an improved
breed of horses in the eighty years of its existence ; it would be
unreasonable to expect that the reorganised Horse-Breeding
Department should have accomplished the task during the
twenty and odd years it has been at work.

OPINIONS OF MAJOR-GENERAL SIR JOHN WATSON, K.C.B.

General Sir John Watson, who has been good enough to
read the foregoing pages, favours me with his views on the
subject of Horse-Breeding in India. As the outcome of long
experience in that country, Sir John's remarks carry great
weight.

He points out that the old Bengal studs, which were
abolished in 1876, supplied both cavalry and artillery with a
remarkably fine class of stud-bred Remount for many years.
Deterioration and infertility followed upon the continued use of
English sires of different classes.

The "Diffused System" was then introduced. As
described in the preceding pages, the gist of this scheme was
the distribution over the horse breeding areas of Northern India
of a large number of English Thoroughbred, Hackney and Arab
Stallions, which give gratuitous service to approved mares.
Sir John Watson is entirely at variance with the authorities
who adopted this " Diffused System." The operations of the
Horse-Breeding Department as now constituted are, he points

60

out, supervised by the Inspector General of the Civil
Veterinary Department, assisted by about a dozen veterinary
surgeons who have various other duties to perform, in taking
measures for prevention of cattle disease, in directing veterinary
education, including colleges for natives who are being trained
in bacteriological research, &c., &c.

The multiplicity of their duties permits the officers of the
Department to devote only a very limited degree of supervision
to the work of the stallions ; and, further, the veterinary
surgeons employed have ne\-er studied breeding as a science.
There is also the fact that after a few years' service in the
Department they revert to their duties wdth the Army ;
whereby no continuous system of supervision is possible.

The gravest objection, however, in Sir John Watson's
opinion, to the " Diffused System " is that it treats the thirteen
different Indian breeds of horse as one, all mares being classed
as "country-bred mares ;" it provides no means nor machinery
whereby the result of using any given stallion on any given
mare can be ascertained. There does not now exist in India
even an experimental stud in which the results of different
crosses can be observed. The Returns, in a word, take
account only of the stallions, and pay no attention whatever to
the mares.

No attempt has been made to preserve these breeds in
their purity ; mares of each and all are covered indiscriminately
by English sires of different classes and by Arabs of greater
or less purity of blood. Sir John observes that under these
circumstances it is not wonderful that wide divergence of
opinion concerning the relative merits of Thoroughbred,
Hackney and Arab should exist. " If nothing is known of
the breeding or quality of a Remount dam, how is it possible
to ascribe good or evil to the sire alone ? " This being the
case, he dismisses the " Figures of Merit " quoted on page 57
as valueless.

Sir John Watson says he is not aware that the main
purpose of the scheme was subverted at the outset, as stated,

61

upon the authority of another expert, on page 58 ; or that the
Horse- Breeding Department was subordinate to the Army
Remount Department : this, he says, has certainly not been
the case for many years. Neither does he understand that any
attempt has been made to combine the two, as stated on
page 59. "The Army Remount Department purchase what
they find at the market ; the Civil Veterinary Department
endeavours to supply that market ; but it has a free hand to
do it in its own way."

In Sir John's opinion our endeavour to create an Anglo-
Indian type of horse capable of reproducing itself can never
succeed ; the endeavour has been persevered in for a century,
has failed, and will fail; " for we are fighting against nature,
and nature will beat us in the long run." This is simply a
more pointed way of saying what I have asserted as a general
principle on page 59 — i.e., that "climate and the prevailing
normal conditions of life are paramount in determining what
the size and character of the horse of any given country shall
be." Sir John Watson, if I understand him rightly, is
opposed to the importation of English stock altogether, as he
asserts that " English and iVsiatic blood will never mingle with
advantage."

Holding these views, he is firm in the belief that the
present system of Indian horse-breeding is radically wrong and
doomed to failure.

62

The Horse-Breeding Commission of igoo-i

In October, igoo, a Commission met at Umballa ta
enquire into the question of Indian Horse-Breeding. The
members visited at the Remount Depots, the Government
farm at Hessar, and toured through the principal horse-
breeding districts; they inspected over 10,000 horses, mules
and donkeys, including nearly all the State stallions and many
branded mares, and they took evidence from numerous civil
and military officers, native chiefs and European and native
breeders and dealers.

In their exceedingly interesting and instructive report, the
Commissioners pointed out all the shortcomings of the
" Diffused System " to which reference has been made in the
foregoing pages, and indicated others not less important.
They stated that the method of distributing stallions was open
to objection, inasmuch as horses were kept standing in districts
where there is little horse-breeding or none, while in districts
where horses are bred there was grave lack of stallions ; that
imported stallions were practically forced upon the native
breeders in regions where strong and, as the Commissioners
admit, well-founded objections existed to their use ; that the
Thoroughbred stallions, English and Australian, are used
without care being used to ascertain whether they nick well
with the mares of any given district ; and that, in a word, the
Diffused System was a costly failure.

The Commissioners, after reviewing the whole matter at
considerable length, arrive at the conclusion that want of
supervision and method chiefly accounts for this failure, and
offer recommendations for the reorganisation of the whole
system, with a view to establishing " a breed of Indian horses
duly registered and branded."

It must be confessed that the recommendations of the
Commissioners were not what the evidence they collected

63

altogether leads the reader to expect. They refer to the
increasing difficulty of procuring suitable Thoroughbred horses,
and to the defects and the great expense of the stock got by
Thoroughbreds ; but they recommend the use of Thoroughbred
stallions to be continued in the proportion of six in ten, the
remaining four to be Arabs.

The most important point that invites attention, however,
is this : in certain States of India there exists breeds of horses
which are pure, which the natives strive to maintain pure,
and. are, in the judgment of the Commissioners, well worth
preserving in their purity. They say : " The Kathiawari,
Marwari, Baluchi and Unmool breeds are pure, and may be
used as safely and hopefully as Arabs."

The Commissioners, in the body of their report, urge that
the peoples of Kathiawar, Marwar, Baluchistan, and the
Northern Punjaub should be encouraged to breed horses, and
that the Indian Government should purchase the best stallions
of these breeds for stud purposes. And here, as I venture to
think, they indicate the line of policy which the Indian
Government should adopt. The mistake — one mistake — has
been, as Sir John Watson points out, the system of treating
all the different Indian breeds of horse as one, ignoring the
fact which the Commissioners now emphasise, that there is
excellent material to our hand in certain parts of the country,
if only we use it in the right way.

These Kathiawari, Marwari, Baluchi and Unmool breeds
offer sources of supply which, all the best authorities are
agreed, would furnish the mounted arms in India with horses
■of the kind required, and that as Nature designed them,
without the admixture of Thoroughbred blood, which has
proved, during recent years at all events, of very doubtful
• advantage.

The suggested purchase of young stock from native
breeders and their maintenance on large tracts of Government
land until of an age to be issued as Remounts has much to
recommend it.

64

The point I would make, after this brief summary of the
Commissioners' Report, is that the facts set out as to native
breeds furnish sound reasons against the recommendation to
reorganise the Government Studs. Economy and efficiency
alike point to the wisdom of turning over a new leaf altogether,
and discarding the use of alien sires other than Arabs of the
best breed. " The price of every remount purchased is
Rs. 1,945 [or ^^135] for stallion power alone" (paragraph 36^),
and the number of animals proving fit for issue as Remounts
being so small by comparison with the numbers bred.

It is difficult to escape the conviction that in this Report
we find ourselves faced once again by the unreasoning
prejudice in favour of the Thoroughbred. Otherwise it seems
impossible to explain the recommendation that the use of
Thoroughbred stallions should be persevered with, while there
exist, over large areas in India, breeds of horses in every way
fitted for military purposes.

65

Works by SIR WALTER GILBEY, Bart.,
Published by Vinton & Co., 9 New Bridge Street, London, E.C.

Modern Carriages Published ic)o6

The passenger vehicles now in use. with notes on their origin. Illustrations.
Octavo, cloth gilt, price 2S. net ; post free, 2s. 3d.

Poultry- Keeping on Farms and Small Holdings Published iqo^

Being a practical treatise on the production of Poultry and Eggs for the Market.
By Sir \Valter Gii.bev, Bart. Illustrated. Price 2S. ; post free, 2S. 3d.

Notes on Alcohol Published 190+

Price 6d. ; post free, yd.

Early Carriages and Roads pubUshed 1903

In this publication attention has been given to the early history of wheeled convey-
ances in England ami their development up to recent times. With Seventeen
Illustrations. Octavo, cloth gilt, price 2S. net; post free, 2S. 4d.

Thoroughbred and Other Ponies Published 1903

With Remarks on the Height of Racehorses since 1700. Being a Revised and
,^ Enlarged Edition of PONIES PAST AND PRESENT. With Ten Illustrations.
Octavo, cloth gilt, price 5s. net ; post free, 5s. 4d.

Hunter Sires Published 1903

Suggestions for Breeding Hunters, Troopers and General-Purpose Horses. By
I. Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. II. Chari,es W. Tindall. III. Right Hon.
Frederick W. Wrench. IV. W. T. Trench. Octavo, paper covers, 6d. ; post
free, jd.

Horses for the Army— a suggestion published 1906

Price 6d. ; post free, yd.

Horse-breeding in England and India, and Army Horses

Abroad Published 1901

Seventeen Chapters, Horse-breeding in England ; Eight Chapters, Horse-breeding
Abroad ; Thirteen pages. Horse-breeding in India. Nine Illustrations. Octavo,
cloth, price 2s. net ; post free, 2s. 3d.

Riding & Driving Horses, their Breeding & Rearing published 1901

An Address delivered in London on March 2, 1885, and Discussion thereon by the
late Dukeof Westminster, Ear! Carrington, Sir Nigel Kingscote, the late Mr. Edmund
Tattersall, and others. Reprint 1901. Octavo, price 2S. net; post free, 2S. 3d.

Small Horses in Warfare Published 1900

.Arguments in favour of their uset or light cavalry and mounted infantry. Illustrated.
Octavo, cloth gilt, price 2s. net ; post free, 2S. 3d.

Horses Past and Present Published 1900

A sketch of the History of the Horse in England from the earlies times. Nine
Illustrations. Octavo, cloth gilt, price 2S. net ; post free, 2S. 3d.

Animal Painters of England Published 1900

The lives of fifty animal painters, from the year 1650 to 1850 Illustrated.
Two vols., quarto, cloth gilt, Two Guineas net.

The Great Horse or War Horse Published 1S99

From the Roman Invasion till its development into the Shire Hor^e. New and
Revised Edition, 1899. Seventeen Illustrations. Octavo, cloth gilt, price 2s. net ;
post free, 2S. 3d.

Harness Horses in the Press

The scarcity of Carriage Horses and how to breed them. 4th Edition. Twenty-one
Chapters. Seven full-page Illustrations. Octavo, cloth gilt, price 2s. net; post
free, 2S. 3d,

Young Race Horses— suggestions published isgs

for rearing, feeding and treatment. Twenty-two Chapters. With Frontispiece and
Diagrams. Octavo, cloth gilt, price 2S. net ; post free, 2S. 3d.

Life of George Stubbs, R.A. Published isgs - •."•."■

Ten Chapters. Twent-y-six Illustrations and Headpiece.s. Quarto, whole Morocco ^MitQhTvi

gilt. £i 3S. net.

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