'^-J^ FOR THE PEOPLE FOR EDVCATION FOR SCIENCE LIBRARY OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY THE HOESE ^^ THE HORSE ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT COMBINED WITH STABLE PRACTICE n BY COLONEL R. F. MEYSEY-THOMPSON AUTHOR OF "A HUNTING CATECHISM," "REMINISCENCES OF CAMP, COURSE AND CHASE," ETC. ILLUSTRATED LONDON EDWARD ARNOLD 191 1 \All rights reserved^ f^- PREFACE THE scheme of this work is to trace the history of the horse from the earHest Ages ; to continue its evohition to modern times, when the various breeds in Great Britain have been brought to a high state of perfection by the careful supervision and skill of enthusiastic breeders ; and also to give in detail the methods of stable practice and training in vogue at present, as practised in my own stable. There are many races of horses, admirable in their way, that have therefore not been touched upon, since they have had no part in the development of British horses. How hardy and useful some of these native breeds are may be gathered from a letter, October 23, 1910, from Mr. J. Tagg, F.E.C.V.S., who had a very prolonged experience in managing an immense Stud in the Tirhoot district of Bengal. Eeferring to the Khirgiz, and the Manchurian ponies, and others of that breed, which are common from the Volga to China, he remarks : " What ripping ponies the Khirgisen are! When I was at Simbirsh, on the Volga — the town is between Kasan and Samara — I used to drive a Troika. The middle pony, about 13'3, was a dun Khirgis stallion, and the two outspanners were geldings, with a dash of Arab in them. The outspanners, or ' outriggers,' used to gallop as hard as they could pelt on the frozen snow, but the Kirgis would never break. The hardiness of the little brutes was marvellous ! On one occasion night over- took me, and I stayed in a village called Astradam, on the Kama River, and I gave my Ivooschick an extra rouble. vi PREFACE My man, a Kalmuck Tartar, and a blackguard personified but faithful to me, went and got drunk promptly. In the night I went out into the yard — there were then about 50 degrees Fahrenheit of frost — and there stood my three ponies, one icicle from the tips of their ears to their heel sockets, comfortably eating rough hay from a crib of sorts." Stories of hardiness that may even vie with the above have been often told from time to time of Indian ponies, Argentine, Norwegian, Basuto, and those of many other countries, showing the innate toughness of various national breeds, and that England has no monopoly of hard-working ponies. They take no part, however, in the composition of British horses or their descendants, and reference to them is unnecessary for the present purpose. My best thanks are gratefully offered to the kind friends who have given me much valuable assistance in compiling this work, and bringing it to a successful conclusion : to Mr. James E. Piatt, the former eminent breeder of thorough- bred yearlings, and owner of the great Kendal in his days at the English Stud, who has given me most welcome help in preparing the chapters on Thoroughbreds, and on American Trotters; to Mr. Walter Winans, famous in many different spheres, but especially in the art of breeding and successfully showing horses, who has kindly revised the mention of American Trotters ; to Lady Anne Blunt, who has unstintedly given me the great advantage of her unique knowledge of the Arabian horse, in preparing the description of her favourite breed ; to Miss Daphne Darley for obtaining the most valuable letter concerning the purchase of the Darley Arabian ; to Mr. Alfred Withers, the world-famous manager of the great establishments in Oxford Street and Edgware Road, for his hints with regard to carriage-horses ; to Kaid Sir Harry Maclean, whose prolonged period of captivity by Raisuli thrilled the whole of Europe, and whose long service in the Councils of the late Sultan of Morocco, dating from 1876 till 1908, was the theme of wonder and admiration in all the Foreign Offices of Europe, who has now kindly PREFACE vii revised the chapter on Barbs ; to Mr. Hermon Biddell, whose intimate knowledge of the Suffolk Punch enabled him to write that most interesting account of them in the first volume of their Stud Book, and whose aid has been invaluable to me in writing about the merits of the breed ; and to Mr. Eobert Thornton, so well known in con- nection with Lord Middleton's Stud Farm at Birdsall, who has supervised the remarks on Breeding. To all these kind friends, and also to those who have granted permission to embellish the work with the likenesses of their favourites, some even personally unknown to me, and to every one who has assisted in bringing this book to a happy conclusion, I now tend my hearty and grateful thanks. R. F. MEYSEY-THOMPSON. November, 1911. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE INTRODUCTION . , . . , . .1 CHAPTER II FOREIGN HORSES ..... 10 CHAPTER III THOROUGHBRED HORSES . . . . .33 CHAPTER IV CARRIAGE-HORSES ...... 105 CHAPTER V CART-HORSES ..... . 116 CHAPTER VI ORIGIN OP AMERICAN TROTTING HORSES . . . 128 CHAPTER VII CONFORMATION ....... 153 CHAPTER VIII BREEDING ...... 182 X CONTENTS CHAPTER IX PAGE BREAKING YOUNG HORSES ..... 201 CHAPTER X STABLE MANAGEMENT CHAPTER XI SIMPLE AILMENTS CHAPTER XII DISINFECTANTS 212 . 276 329 CHAPTER XIII ALCOHOL ....... 333 CHAPTER XIV EXAMINING A HORSE FOR SOUNDNESS . . . 340 CHAPTER XV TRAINING FOR RACING, POINT TO POINT, ETC. . . 361 CHAPTER XVI DRIVING, RIDING, HUNTING, RACE-RIDING . . . 382 CHAPTER XVII HORSE SHOWS AND REMOUNTS .... 412 INDEX ....... 429 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Darley Arabian Frontispiece Berk . . . . . To face page 10 Carnival . . . . . >> 28 St. Simon . . . . • >) 34 Sceptre .... • >» 38 Maid of the Mint »f 44 Spearmint tt 46 La Fleche If 60 John o' Gaunt . »> 64 Berrill .... • • >) 68 Kettleholder >i 80 Comaraich >) 92 Shetland .... it 96 Marquis .... i» 100 Measuring- stone on York Eace-cours je 103 Cleveland Bay . • • )> 106 xu LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Two Hackneys .... To face page 110 Hackney Trotting 112 Cream ..... 114 Shire ..... 116 Clydesdale .... lib Suffolk Punch .... 124 American Trotter 132 Gimcrack .... 138 Prince Alert .... 148 Blink Bonny's Skeleton 178 Arabian from Lady Anne Blunt's Stud 188 Manifesto .... 362 Carnival Jumping 390 Carnival Cantering 390 THE HOESE CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION OAVING to the careful researches that have continuously taken place during the last fifty years, our know- ledo^e of the early history of the horse has been enormously increased. We now possess a comprehen- sive view of its evolution from prehistoric ancestors, the earliest date of which goes back to a period whose remote- ness was little suspected a few years ago. Our knowledge has been gained through the finding of bones and teeth in the various deposits termed the Tertiaries ; for the skeletons of mammals, like those of birds, reptiles, and osseous fishes, being composed of calcareous earth pervading an organic base, have withstood the passage of incalculable Ages, provided they were kept out of the reach of the solvent action of water, in almost a similar manner to the soil itself. Our knowledge thus gained has been further immensely increased by the dis- covery of marvellous drawings left by the Cave-dwellers (usually known as the Reindeer Men), which were carved in a most artistic, as well as realistic, manner on the tusks of the mammoth, and on various other bones, and depict both the pursuits of the human beings of that epoch, and the animals with whom they were acquainted. Though we do not know when the Tertiaries commenced to form, they have taken millions of years to do so ; and as they consist of well-defined series of clay and sand, superimposed above each other, the finding of the 2 2 THE HORSE remains of animals in the respective strata affords a reliable guide to the sequence of their evolution, and shows the different stages they have passed through to attain their modern form ; while their total absence in the early geologic formations is conclusive proof that they must have evolved from the primitive forms, which then alone peopled the earth. To commence at the beginning, there was first the Pre-Cambrian Age, that of the Torridonian Sandstone and various igneous rocks. No undoubted fossils in this formation have yet been found, but life most probably existed, as we find all the chief genera of invertebrates in the succeeding Cambrian period. Following in sequence came the Primary, or Palaeozoic epoch, commencing with the Cambrian formation, when Trilobites were in existence. Later was included the formation of the Silurian, when there were plant-like animals, and small fish ; the Devonian, when Ganoid fishes and true sharks first appeared ; the Carboniferous, when (as the coal measures show) there were great forests, and plant-life was on a profuse scale ; and lastly, the Permian — a formation of the limestone, slate, and sandstone, when reptiles first began to crawl. Following this epoch came the Secondary, or Mesozoic Age. This included the Triassic ; the Jurassic, (the flourishing period of Ammonites and reptiles, such as the Icthyosaurus, Deinosaurus, and Plesiosaurus, and when the first bird made its appearance) ; and lastly, the Cretaceous, or Chalk Age, when the remains have been found in America of birds possessing teeth ! Whether mammals evolved from such birds or from reptiles yet remains to be proved. The evolution of fish into land- animals may possibly be traced through the curious- cat- fish of Africa, and the climbing perch of India, both of which can live out of water for a considerable time. In the former this power is due to vascular structures above the gills, enabling them to breathe atmospheric air. One form is almost amphibious, and when the marshes are dried up can spend the dry season in burrows, which it INTRODUCTION 3 leaves at night to seek for food. The transformation, too, of tadpoles into air-breathing frogs and toads, is an example familiar to everybody who frequents the country ditches in the summer-time, and is too common an occurrence to excite remark ; whilst the breathing of atmospheric air by inhabitants of the ocean, which never leave it, is another case in point, exhibited by the whales and porpoises. At the bottom of the chalk sea were deposited myriads of fossils, shells, and fish, which are marked features of the formation at the present day ; but there are no traces of mammals. The few that have been discovered during the Secondary Period appear to have been of a small marsupial animal, and also a small insectivorous one. Although the actual genesis of the horse is thus veiled in obscurity, like that of other mammals, warm- blooded animals which suckle their young, its evolution is clearly traced in the Old World from the Hyracotherium, a horse-like animal not larger than a fox. It was only about eleven inches high, existing in the Lower Eocene Period, the first, and lowest, of the Tertiary deposits, and possessing four toes on each fore-foot, with rudiments of another, and three on each hind-foot. In the New World the earliest direct ancestor was the Eo-hippus, which had the same characteristics as the Hyracotherium. Another small animal existed about the same period which possessed five toes on each foot, had the same charac- teristics as the Hyracotherium, and there is little doubt was a still more remote ancestor of the horse. It is termed the Phrenacodus, the first specimen being found by Professor Cope, who dug it up from the Eocene marl on Bear River, in Wyoming. All mammals, even elephants, are descended from similar five-toed ancestors (no larger than a fox), and there are no fossil remains (excepting those of which mention has been made above) of any of them earlier than the sands and clays forming the Tertiary deposits. These are divided into Lower, Middle, and Upper, as far as this country is 4 THE HORSE concerned; or Eocene (the first and lowest), Oligocene, and Pliocene ; while on the Continent there is a fourth, the Miocene, intermediate between the Oligocene and Pliocene. Then comes the Pleistocene or Quater- nary epoch, divided into three periods : No. 1, the Upper, or Post-Glacial Pleistocene, the Age of the Rein- deer, and the extremely artistic race known as the Eein- deer Men ; No. 2, the Middle Pleistocene, or Last Glacial Age, when another race existed known as the Neander Men ; and lastly. No. 3, the Lower Pleistocene, when man must have lived, as flint implements have been found in the gravels of England and France, though no human remains have yet been discovered. It was not until the Quaternary Period, millions of years after the epoch of the early Hyracotherium, that amongst its gravel and cave-deposits the weapons, imple- ments, and carvings were found of the Cave-dwelling Men who flourished from 50,000 to 100,000 years ago. They had for company the lion, bear, mammoth, rhinoceros, and horse, whom they slew for food in vast numbers, with the assistance only of such poor tools as flint knives and bone javelins, at a time when the British Islands were still a solid part of the Continent. Gradually the habits of the early horse changed ; speed became of prime importance in the struggle for existence, both to escape from enemies and also to flee from arid districts to places where water could be found ; and as the stature increased so also did the toes become shorter from disuse. In the Middle Tertiary the four toes (Fig. 1) had become only three (Fig. 2), still of equal dimensions, and the size of the animal had increased to that of a fair-sized donkey. The form beginning to resemble that of the modern wild Mongolian horse, the Hipparion as it is thence called, continued to develop. Eventually the central digit became unduly elongated, the toe became rounded into hoof-like form (Fig. 3), and the lateral digits resolved themselves into well-developed pettitoes, such as we are familiar with in the domestic pig, and of INTRODUCTION 5 which the splint-bones of the modern horse are an interesting survival. From the carvings left by the Cave-dvi^ellers, the Hipparion had already assumed a horse-like form ; but even then there appears to have been a cleavage into two types, the one resembling the modern wild horse of the Gobi Desert, coarse in its head, inelegant in its neck, with a low-carried tail ; while the other was of a more slender make, with a narrower, more tapering head, which undoubtedly signified " quality," as understood by horsemen at the present time. It is more than probable that this was the " old original " of the Arabian horse and the Barb, which conclusion is strengthened by the hollow depression in the skull, in front of the orbit, being common to both Hipparion and Arabian horses, and Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. their descendants, even when crossed with other breeds. Moreover, it is entirely wanting in the skulls of the wild Mongolian horse, as well as in those of the horses of Northern Europe, such as the Iceland and Norwegian ponies, and the coarse-bred horse of the common type (the Shire horse alone excepted), more especially in those breeds where a dun colour prevails. This cavity is pre- sumed to have contained a gland, such as is possessed by antelopes and deer, which secretes a fluid that is supposed to give out a special odour, by which indi- viduals of a tribe may track each other if they happen to be separated and scattered. Sach cavities in front of the eye can be traced in our thoroughbred horses, due to the introduction of the blood of Eastern horses into our indigenous racing stock. Professor Cosser Ewart has stated his opinion that in the Early Eocene Period 6 THE HORSE horses may have been of a uniform colour, "a foxy -red" in hue ; while the Miocene horses were either striped or spotted. No doubt at that period horses were dwelling in vastly different areas, some inhabiting bush and some open plains, and their colouring would assimilate to their surroundings. Stripes appeared first on the legs, as are sometimes still seen in dun horses, and then a dorsal band and shoulder stripes followed, though the markings were faint and ill-defined, until, as time ran its course, the zebras developed their characteristic coat. Caves containing vast quantities of fossil remains of early quadrupeds have been discovered and investigated in many parts of the world ; and it is likely that our own limestone ranges, whose vast fissures and caverns underground give no external indication of their exist- ence, may reward future investigators with rich dis- coveries which will throw more light on prehistoric ages. In England, " Kent's Cavern " at Torquay, the Creswell Cave and the " Kirkdale Cave," in Yorkshire, have been prolific of fossil treasures. North America has provided remains of the " Protohippus " in the Later Eocene, in which the splint-bones are fully developed, terminating inferiorly in small though perfect toes, a contemporary of the Hipparion ; the Miocene " Anchi- therium," the crowns of whose teeth are quite short and free from cement ; and the " Pliohippus " in the Upper Pliocene, with shorter cheek teeth ; while South America has the " Onohippidium Munizi," found in the superficial deposits of Argentina, and characterised by the great length of the nasal slit, which extends as far as the eye-socket. In the light of these fossil remains, it is curious that when America was discovered no living horses existed on that continent. It is the great caverns in the Pyrenees, and the Landes, and the cele- brated cavern of La Madeleine in the Dordogne, which have yielded the great wealth of carvings and other evidences of the Cave-men. It has been stated that in one locahty in France alone — Solutre, near Macon — the INTRODUCTION 7 bones of 100,000 horses have been collected, which had been cooked and eaten ; while an immense amount of carvings, some in line-engraving and some in relief, have been recovered and placed in the great Museum of St. Germain, near Paris, and also figure in private collections, largely through the indefatigable exertions of the late Vicomte de Lastic and the recently deceased M. Piette. In common with other mammals the evolution of the horse may therefore be summed up in the following table (see p. 8), millions of years being consumed in the process of ascend- ing from the lowest epoch to the date of the most recent winner of the Epsom Derby, or the First Prize Shire Horse at the Koyal Agriculture Show ; though undoubtedly all are links in one progressive chain of development from a lower to a higher form. The table should be studied from the bottom, working up from the Pre-Cambrian Age, the period of the Torridonian Sandstone, to the Palaeo- lithic or Upper Glacial epoch, the links of which are superimposed upon each other, like the different layers of a sandwich. The use of the horse by the Cave-dwellers was assuredly for food. It was probably a long time before they made any endeavour to utilise its services, but that they eventually did so is clearly indicated on some of the carvings discovered by M. Piette. Twisted thongs were placed round the head and muzzle in the fashion of a bridle, or halter, but whether any sort of bit was used is uncertain. In all probability the horse was primarily controlled by pressure with the nose-band, which latter may have been supplemented by a hard material such as bone, or wood, similar to the metal cavessons frequently employed instead of bits, in the Peninsula, at the present day. When man takes any species of animal in hand he invariably contrives to modify some of its characteristics to suit his wants, and it is likely the Cave-dwellers asserted their influence, and the horse as used by them changed somewhat in type from what Nature, free and unfettered, would have continued to produce ; but it has been left to very modern times to originate and THE HORSE E. Age. Palaeolithic or Post-Tertiary or Quaternary or Pleistocene Period. {Upper, or Post-Glacial Pleistocene ( Middle, or Last Glacial \ Pleistocene Lower Pleistocene Age of the Reindeer, and the artistic Reindeer Men. Hipparion assumed complete form of horse. Age of the Neander Men. Mild climate. Age of the Hippopotamus in England, and other European rivers. D. C. Pliocene r Upper Lower (Tertiaries. Miocene ... Advent of Oligocene . . . Mammals Eocene Plio-hippus, extra digits en- tirely rudimentary. Hipparion three-toed. About the size of a Shetland pony. American " Anchitherium." Stripes and spots appear. Eo-hippus, New World. Hyracotherium, Old World, four-toed, probably foxy- red in hue, and about eleven inches high. Phrenacodus, the five-toed, earliest hoofed mammal yet discovered. Chalk Age C Secondary Jurassic or •< Mesozoic. I Age of 1^ Reptiles Triassic Fossil shells, and birds found in America possessing teeth. Advent of first bird. Flourish- ing period of Ammonites, and Reptiles, such as the Icthyosaurus, Deinosaurus, Pleisiosaurus. B. Primary Age of Fishes and MoUusks Permian Carboniferous (Coal Mea- sures) Devonian Silurian Cambrian Formation of Limestone, Slate and Sandstone. Reptiles began to crawl. Great Forests, and profuse plant-life. True sharks, and Ganoid fishes. Plant-like animals, and small fishes. Age of trilobites. A. Pre-Cambrian Torridonian Sandstone and various igneous rocks No undoubted fossils yet found, but probably existed, as the chief genera of inver- tebrates are found in the Cambrian. develop the numerous groups that now exist, specialised for the particular duties for which they are required. In this the breeders in the British Islands have taken a fore- INTRODUCTION 9 most place, and the success they have achieved has been recognised by ahnost every civihsed country, nearly all of which have repeatedly sought our best breeding stock, to raise the character of their own home produce. More- over, up to now, other countries do not seem able to maintain the same high standard through their own efforts, and owing to some peculiarity in the climate of these Isles it is found necessary to return again for fresh supplies from British breeders, after every few generations, to prevent deterioration setting in. Whether the first use of the horse was for riding or driving is hardly likely to be ever known for certain, though to get upon a horse's back necessarily requires less prepara- tion than to provide means for draught, even of the simplest construction. On the other hand, although the Cave-dweller may have surmounted the initial difficulty when he had got on the animal's back, he had to manage to remain there, which is not such a very simple matter if the steed disapproves of such liberties being taken, and resents them accordingly ! It is not to be supposed that these early men would be troubled with very refined feelings, and their methods of reducing a rebellious steed to subjection would be likely to be efficacious, if somewhat unpleasantly drastic ; but then comes in also the question of whether they were troubled with nerves ! Probably at that remote date they did not know what fear was, though by the time the Biomans appeared on the scene Horace tells in a familiar passage how " atra cura'' sits "post equitem,'' which the schoolboy felicitously translated, " He was in a blue funk." As the size of the animal was so diminutive it seems probable that it would be used for traction rather than riding, at the earliest period of its subjugation by man. CHAPTEE II FOEEIGN HOESES Arabians. IN buildinw up our horses to the magnificent standard to which they have attained, it may well be asked where we should be now without the assistance of Eastern sires, and more especially of the Arabian. Our indigenous stock appears to have been a wiry, small horse — the type, no doubt, of our present mountain ponies — and on that foundation has been superimposed the blood of Arabians and Barbs, and frequently also that of the Spanish genet. Eastern blood has certainly been imported continually since the arrival of the Romans, who are credited with holding race-meetings in Yorkshire. Baron von Oettingen states in " Horse Breeding in Theory and Practice," p. 11 : " Horse-racing as a popular amusement was indulged in even in the times of the Romans, and during the four years which King Severus passed at York (206-210 a.d.) the Roman soldiers arranged races with Arabians at Wetherby, near York." Such a race-course would be conveniently situated within reach of their great stations at York, Aldborough, and Tadcaster, though it is not to be supposed they would make any fine distinction between Barbs and Arabians, but would probably include all Eastern horses under one designation. No doubt the steeds remained, and died, in Britain, and never returned to Rome ; and since they would almost certainly eventually be used for breeding, they must have exerted a considerable influence on the common stock of the 10 I I bC he u FOREIGN HORSES 11 district around them.* We know, again, that numerous horses were brought back from Palestine in the train of the Crusaders, which would of a surety be Arabian in character ; so the improvement of our horses through the admixture of Eastern blood must have commenced at a very early period in our national story. Whether the Arabian horse of that epoch was identical with the animal of to-day, it is impossible to know for certain ; but in all probability it was similar in all important respects, for the Eastern world changes very slowly, and the habits of the desert are now akin to the customs described in the Old Testament. The well-known description of a war-horse in the 39th chapter of the Book of Job is that of a spirited, courageous charger, befitting the present denizen of the desert. The characteristic qualities of the high-caste Arabian, his endurance, hardihood, generous temper, and sound- ness, enable him to impart lasting benefit to any breed with which he is crossed. Like a foxhound he is a model of symmetry and power, and though his stature may be small the strength in that compact form is simply marvellous. As a war-horse his strong constitu- tion, enabling him to withstand heat and cold, hunger and thirst, and the fatigues of the long, and often forced, marches day after day, renders him invaluable ; for he '•'■ Lady Anne Blunt in a letter dated 25th of September, 1910, perti- nently I'emarks : " As to the Crusader's importations, what are the records '? Query — May not Eastern horses, other than Arabian, have been the majority of these, for the fighting was against Turks, and the like, who had probably Turcoman and other Asiatic horses ; and not against Beduin Nomads of Central Arabia, unless in very limited numbers. At that date the actual Nomads must have ceased pouring out of Arabia in a torrent, as they did at the beginning, being no longer driven out in haste by the hard conditions of life. The surplus, for whom there was not enough pasture, must have already cleared off for the time being. In the true Nomad tribes of Arabia the horse held the same position as now — witness the pre-Islamic poetry, in which are many descrip- tions of it in hunting and in war. The supply was always limited, as now. It is historical that in the early raids extra plunder was allotted to owners of pure-bred mares and stallions. So I wonder whether the Crusaders met with any considerable numbers of Arabian horses ? " 12 THE HORSE can live on rations on which an ordinary horse would starve, and fling himself into camp with undaunted courage after such toil that most other horses would have succumbed by the way. His pluck is such that he will face cheerfully any danger when he under- stands what is required, to which generations of pig- stickers will willingly bear witness, as well as the participators in many a gallant fight. One thing is essential, however. He must be left entire, as Nature made him, for when subjected to a humiliating opera- tion, as our War Office have sometimes been ill-advised enough to order, his spirit departs, and he is no longer the same gallant animal he was. His is a chivalrous nature. Treat him like a friend, be kind but firm, and never treat him harshly or ill-temperedly, and he will respond to the utmost, and give up his life to save yours if you have to ask him for his last effort, in your dire need. English judges are frequently at a loss when they first meet with Arabians, as they expect to find the high wither they are accustomed to associate with " shoulders " ; and when they see the broad, rounded wither usual in Arabians they at once exclaim, " What wretched shoulders ! " It is really nothing of the kind ! The shoulder-blade may be, and commonly is, well sloped with the utmost freedom of action, although the withers are rounded, and comparatively low ; and this latter formation, with corresponding muscular develop- ment, is actually a sign of weight-carrying capacity. The Englishman, too, is taught by the ordinary artist to expect to see delicate, gazelle-like legs, and does not always appreciate at their true worth the great back- sinews — the ropes which move the leg-bones — which the Arabians as a race are remarkable for possessing. The artist, also, is apt to sketch the head in repose termi- nating in a square muzzle, and reduced to the elegant proportion necessary " to drink out of a pint-pot," which tradition holds an Arabian should be able to do ; and therefore, when the long tapering muzzle of a stallion is seen, with nostrils resembling those of a camel, and FOREIGN HORSES 13 which are not so " becoming " as a square and narrow muzzle would be, the Englishman is apt to feel dis- appointed, and to show it by stigmatising the Arab's head as coarse. This idea is also helped by the enlarge- ment of the skull on each side of the nasal bone, giving the appearance that a swelling has been caused by a severe blow, when the head is viewed from the front ; so until the observer's eye has been educated, and his judgment matured, he is quite at a loss when deal- ing with Arabian stallions, and does not do sufficient justice to them. The head of a mare, however, more nearly approaches the popular ideal in its elegant proportions. Much romance has gathered around the Arab and his steed, and not without good reason. There is a glamour wrapped round the life of both and their sharing of the same tent and food, which has more than a spark of truth in it, though it may not be their everyday portion. But the wild roving habits of the tribes, compelling such close intercourse with the animals in their possession, and the natural sympathy of the Arab for so responsive a nature, combine to bring out the best qualities of each, and make them the closest friends. Having been bred for countless generations with one fixed ideal in view, that of carrying his master on raids and expeditions in an arid climate, exposed to extremes of heat and cold — for snow and frost are not unknown in the desert in winter — the qualities most required for such a task have naturally been kept steadily in view, until they have become ingrained in the nature of the animal. The constant close companionship with man in which he lives has also had its usual effect, and developed the intelligence to a very high degree, and the Arabian horse is the very reverse of being dull-witted. He shows his lineage in his aspect, and, as with a gamecock, the first glance tells you he is a gentleman of high descent. The fine head, the broad forehead, and large intelligent eyes, all speak of high breeding, and 14 THE HORSE no one would accuse him of being tainted with base-born blood. AVith his head and tail carried well up he gazes fearlessly on the world, giving evidence of his noble nature in his gallant bearing, and he it is who has given us our thoroughbred horse, the envy and admiration of the world. It is curious that on the majority of Arabians of high-caste, somewhere or other, often on the neck or quarters, there is a little indentation in the flesh known as " the mark of the Prophet's thumb," which is fre- quently present in our own thoroughbreds. In that most interesting work by Lady Anne Blunt, " A Pilgrimage to Nejd," describing her journey thither with her husband, and their visit to the Emir's stables, the proper points of a horse's head are given, as esteemed by the Arabs, and I venture to quote them here. " First of all, the head should be large, not small. A little head the Arabs particularly dislike, but the size should be all in the upper regions of the skull. There should be a great distance from the ears to the eyes, and a great distance from one eye to the other, though not from ear to ear. The forehead, moreover, and the whole region between and just below the eyes should be convex, the eyes themselves standing rather a fleur de Ute. But there should be nothing fleshy about their prominence, and each bone should be sharply edged. A flat forehead is disliked. The space round the eyes should be free of all hair in summer, so as to show the black skin underneath, and this just round the eyes should be especially black and lustrous. The cheek- bone should be deep and lean, and the jaw-bone clearly marked. Then the face should narrow suddenly and run down almost to a point, not, however, to such a point as one sees in the English race-horse, whose profile seems to terminate with the nostril, but to the tip of the lip. The nostril when in repose should lie flat with the face, appearing in it little more than a slit, and pinched and puckered up, as also should the mouth, which should have the under-lip longer than the upper, ' like the camel's,' the Beduins say. The ears, especially in the FOREIGN HORSES 15 mare, should be long, but fine and delicately cut, like the ears of a gazelle. "It must be remarked that the head and tail are the two points especially regarded by Arabs in judging of a horse, as in them they think they can discover the surest signs of his breeding. The tails of the Nejd horses are as pecuHar as their heads, and are as essential to their beauty. However other points might differ, every horse at Hail had its tail set on in the same fashion, in repose something like the tail of a rocking-horse, and not as has been described ' thrown out in a perfect arch.' In motion the tail was held high in the air, and looked as if it could not under any circumstances be carried low. . . . "With regard to colour, of the hundred animals in the Ha'il stables there were about forty greys or rather whites, thirty bays, twenty chestnuts, and the rest brown. We did not see a real black, and of course there are no roans or piebalds, or duns, for these are not Arab colours. The Emir one day asked us what colours we preferred in England, and when we told him bay or chestnut he quite agreed with us. Nearly all Arabs prefer bay with black points, though pure white with a very black skin and hoofs is also liked. In a bay or chestnut, three white feet, the off fore-foot being dark, are not objected to. But, as a rule, colour is not much regarded at Hail, for there, as elsewhere in Arabia, a fashionable strain is all in all." In the desert no written pedigrees are kept, and the foal takes rank according to the family of his dam ; but then the greatest care is taken that she visits only a stallion of the highest caste. In a way this accords with the teaching of Bruce Lowe, to follow the lineage of the dam, in reckoning the descent of a horse. The " mark of the Prophet's thumb," above alluded to, refers to the ancient legend that Mahomet put his seal upon five favourite mares by imprint- ing his thumb upon them, and their families are frequently said to form the select " upper classes " of the desert under the distinguished title of " El Khamsa." 16 THE HORSE It must, however, be pointed out that though Oasis- dwellers in Nejd, and tribes that have migrated north to the edge of Ottoman territory, accept the ordinary Moslem traditions, it is not so with the Nomad tribes, to whom there is no Khamsa. On this point Lady Anne Blunt emphati- cally remarks : " What I have heard said is ' Ah ! those are things the Northern folk (Ahl es Shemal), believe.' As to any of the equine race being descended from one of the Prophet's mares (a favourite dealer's phrase), the view expressed by my Muteyre informant is that ' Any one who talks thus is fit to be shut up as a lunatic ! ' Moreover, of those Arabs, Northern or Oasis, who have adopted the Khamsa, hardly any two (as far as I know), quote the same list of five. My chief authority is never tired of impressing upon me that everything pure-bred (mazbute), goes back to Kehilan Ajuz, therefore I now in the printed list" (i.e., of Lady Anne Blunt's Crabbet Park and Egyptian, Arabian studs), "place that first, as the original generic term for pure-bred." The talk of " outside breeds" as reported in "Beduins of the Euphrates," on Skene's authority, is a mistake ; it is either all or nothing, as to breeding, although from certain strains having made themselves famous, they have acquired and kept a reputation of superiority. " A strain, if it can be so called, with only one name means that one parent, or ancestor, was not noble, and in Beduin eyes such a stain endures for ever. Strains mentioned as 'outside,' such as Dahman Shahwan, Dahman Nejib, Shueyman Sbah, Wadnan Hursan, are especially Nejd strains, and very hard to find. " The general view I take of the Arabian horse's present position is that although the Northern tribes, i.e., the Anezeh group and some Shammar, originally possessed strains identical with the present Nejd ones, the fact of their intercourse with the 'Dowla,' or Ottoman Government, has tended to corrupt their horses. Those late migrations were in search of pasture, and I think about two hundred or three hundred years ago. Even so late as thirty-two years ago, when we went, they were still very indepen- dent of the Dowla; but the policy of Abd el Hamid was FOREIGN HORSES 17 successful in getting them very much in its grip, and now no Nejdean beheves in the purity of blood amongst them, except in such families as Ibn Sbeyni, Ibn ed Derri, the Debbe, Ibn Bodan, and some others, who keep aloof both from wars and from the Turks. As to getting anything direct from Nejd, it is very difficult, even if one can hold direct communication. It is the getting across which is so risky, first from the central plateau to somewhere near the Persian Gulf, and then coming up by the Euphrates and westward. Hundreds of camels come, but they are afraid to bring valuable horses for the dangers of the way. " I cannot discover any ground for the statement, also Skene's theory, of strains having certain particular characteristics ; there is no distinction drawn between them, as he imagined, and no Beduin would dream of keeping them separately. As an example, the Abeyans being supposed to be small. Queen of Sheba was just the reverse. Nor is it true the Seglawi Jedran are not generally handsome — they vary like every other strain." This testimony of Lady Anne Blunt is invaluable, for her knowledge of the desert and its inhabitants, and especially of the families of Arabian horses, is everywhere recognised as the highest out of Arabia. Her acquaintance with them is, moreover, at first hand, for not only has she sought them in their own home, and has brought them from thence to Crabbet Park and there raised a breeding stud renowned hroughout the world, but at the death of Ali Pasha Sherif she also practically purchased the whole remnant of the magnificent stud, formed at vast expense by Abbas Pacha I., Viceroy of Egypt, 1848-1854, and has established them near Cairo, where she has a further breeding establishment at the Sheykh Obeyd stud. Subject to the above criticism, to which the greatest weight must be attached, the five families held to constitute the Khamsa are usually arranged as follows : — El Khamsa 1. Kehilan. 2. Seglawi. 3. Abeyan. 4. Hamdani. 5. Hadban. these being divided into many substrains. 3 18 THE HORSE The real test, however, in a Beduin's eyes, is whether a strain has only one name, for if so it can never be accepted as pure-bred, and stalHons are only used as sires from those strains which possess double names. The reputation of the Kehilan and the Seglawi Jedran for speed received singular confirmation in 1884, when Hadramaut, the property of the writer, but bred by Mr. Wilfrid Blunt at Crabbet Park, won the Oriental Stakes, at Sandown Park, beating the winner of a similar race at Newmarket a fortnight previously, while Haifa, an own sister to Hadramaut, ran third. These two were by Kars, a Seglawi Jedran of Ibn Sbeni, who was purchased by Mr. Blunt at Aleppo, from Mahmud Aga, a Kurdish Chief of Irregulars, who obtained him as a two-year-old from the Fedaan Anezeh, and when he was three years old rode him to the war in Armenia, when nearly every other horse perished. The dam of the pair was Hagar, a Kehilet Ajuz, and so the best strains of the desert were commingled, with satisfactory results. Moreover, the horse which divided the brother and sister, and was second, bore such plain indications of having English blood in his veins that when in the paddock at Newmarket, the late Major G. B. Luxford and the late Colonel G. Hutton, two friends of the writer, as well as himself, all having had experience in training and riding Arabians, and the Arabian-English cross, at once exclaimed, when Asil made his appearance, " That's not a pure-bred Arabian, but half-English." Nobody used to the two kinds can easily make a mistake, for there are very essential differences ; and in this case it is not difficult to trace the probable source whence the English blood was derived. Captain Tryon purchased the mare, Belkis, at Aleppo in 1881, in foal with Asil to an Abeyan Sherik horse ; but he probably was quite unaware that about twenty years previously the late Mr. John Johnstone, of Heath Hall, Annandale, had carried out a series of experiments at Aleppo crossing Arabian mares with English thoroughbred sires, and also English thoroughbred mares with Arabian stallions, the results of which he published in the Spurting Magazine FOREIGN HORSES 19 in 1864. Many of the produce were parted with at Aleppo, so a cross of English thoroughbred blood is easily accounted for. In the account published by Mr. William Palgrave of his visit to Nejd, disguised as an Oriental, he remarks : — "Nejd horses are especially esteemed for great speed and endurance of fatigue ; indeed in this latter quality none come up to them. To pass twenty-four hours on the road without drink and without flagging is certainly something, but to keep up the same abstinence and labour conjoined, under the burning Arabian sky for forty-eight hours at a stretch, is, I believe, peculiar to the animals of the breed ! " It is this spirit and endurance that give Arabians their chief value, which is appreciated far more by almost every foreign nation than by our own, for we perhaps set undue store by actual size. We forget the old saw, that it is "symmetry and action that carry weight " ; to which must be added courage and resolution to bear fatigue and go through with the allotted task. We are afraid of losing bulk by reintroducing Arabian blood, though this seldom extends beyond the first cross ; and on one occasion the winner of the first prize in the four-year-old class for weight-carrying hunters, at the Dublin Horse Show, was the son of a little Arabian sire, said to be barely 14 hands. In testimony of the worth of Arabian horses for campaigning purposes, reference may be made to a memo- randum drawn up by the late Colonel Barrow, of the 19th Hussars, who was so well known as one of the chief organisers of mounted infantry. The memorandum re- ferred to the Arabians, on whom the 19th Hussars were mounted during the campaign on the Nile for the relief of Khartoum. They were stallions of 14 hands, between eight and nine years old, and were bought in Syria and Lower Egypt at about ^18 per head. Colonel Barrow calls attention to the fact, as being very remark- able, that out of 350 horses during nine months in a hard 20 THE HORSE campaign, only twelve died from disease, and this he attributes, firstly, to the climate of the Soudan being most suitable for horses ; and, secondly, to the Arabian horse having a wonderful constitution, and being admirably suited for warfare in an Eastern climate. The distance marched, irrespective of reconnaissances, &c., was over 1,500 miles, and the weight carried averaged over 14 stone. The weather during the last four months was very trying, food was often very limited, and during the desert march water was very scarce. When General Stewart's column made its final advance on Metammeh the 155 horses the 19th had with them marched to the Nile without having received a drop of water for fifty-five hours and having had only 1 lb. of grain, while some fifteen or twenty had no water for seventy hours. At the end of the campaign, and after a week's rest, the animals were handed over to the 20th Hussars at Assouan in as good order as when they left Wady Haifa nine months previously. Such a record compares very favourably with the experience of the mounted troops during the South African War ! Professor H. F. 0 shorn, of the American Museum of Natural History, has formulated the distinctive features of the Arabian horse as having a relatively short skull, very wide between the eye-sockets, which are high and prominent, giving the eyes a wide range of vision ; while the profile of the face is concave, due to a relatively large brain. There is a slight depression in front of the eye-socket. The lower jaw is slender in front, and deep and wide-set behind. The chest is rounded ; the back and loins well ribbed up, due to the fact that there are only five, instead of the normal six, lumbar or ribless vertebrg&. The pelvis has a nearly horizontal position — a characteristic connected with great speed. The croup, or tail region, is com- paratively high, while the tail has only sixteen instead of eighteen vertebrae. In the limbs the shaft of the ulna, or small bone of FOREIGN HORSES 21 the fore-le^s, is complete, the same feature being also observed in a skeleton of Grevy's zebra. The cannon bones are elongated and slender, and the pasterns are long and sloping, while the bones are denser than in ordinary horses. It was not until the seventeenth century, especially after the Restoration, that Eastern horses were imported in such numbers as greatly to influence our home stock. From some one or more of such sires all our best race- horses of those and modern times have been descended ; and all the winners of the great three-year-old races may be invariably traced to one of the three celebrated sires of the eighteenth century, the Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Arabian, and the Byerley Turk, as chronicled in Weatherby's Stud-book. The leading position must be assigned to the first named, and by the kindness of Miss Darley I am enabled to give the exact account of the purchase of this horse, the most famous in the world, from a letter forwarded by Mr. Darley from Aleppo to his brother at Aldby Park. This letter Miss Darley discovered when looking through old family documents, and has most kindly furnished an exact copy. Aleppo, Y" 21" December, 1703. Dear Brother, Your obliging favour of the 7 Aprill came to my hands the 16'^ October, by our convoj^ and by whom I assygne these, w'^ hope will have better success in arriving safe than the many letters wrote you, besydes I have never been favoured with any letters from you but that I immediately answered y'' first conveyance that succeeded after receipt thereof, being very desirous of maintaining a punctual! correspondence, for nothing is more gratefull to me than to hear the welfare of my Relations & friends, and more particularly your good Self. I take notice what discourse you have had with my Father & its very true he has ordered my returning, w'=^' I should gladly obey would my affaires permit, therefore hope he will be pleased to excuse my delay untill a more propper season, for I assure I am not in Love with this place to stay an hour longer than is absolutely necessary. Since my Father expects I sh''' send him a stallion I esteem myself happy in a colt I bought about a year and a half agoe, with a desygne indeed to send him y*^ first good opportunity. He comes four the latter end of March or the beginning of Aprill next ; 22 THE HORSE his colour is Bay & his near foot before with both his hind feet have white upon them, he has a blaze downe his face something of the largest. He is about 15 hands high, of the most esteemed race amongst the Arabs both by Syre & Dam, and the name of the said race is called Mannicka. The only fear I have at present about him is that I shall not be able to get him aboard this war time, though I have the promise of a very good & intimate friend the Hon'''*^ & Eev°'^ Henry Bridges, son to L'^ Chandoes, who embarks on the Ipswich, Captain William Waklin, who presume will not refuse taking in a horse for him since his brother is one of y^ Lords of y*' Admiralty ; besides I desygne to go to Scand" to assist in getting him off. W'^'^if I can accomplish & he arrives in safety, I believe he will not be dis- liked, for he is esteemed here where could have sold him at a con- siderable price if I had not designed him for England. I have desired Bridges to deliver him to my brother John or Cozen Charles who he can find first & they are to follow my Father's orders in sending him into y'' country. For y^ ffreight & all charges to his landing I will order payment of, tho' am not certain w' it may amount to. Am told by a friend who sent home a horse last year, it cost him inc^'' 100 £ Stg. When you see Coz Peirson pray tender him my humble salutes, & since his Daughter is ready I shall endeavour with all speed to prepare myself. With Mr. Brailsford I am acquainted & were he not of too ficle a humour it w'' be happyer for him ; yet I wish him success in his voyage to Portug'. I am sorry for the death of Lawrence, as of all ffriends. I have given my friend Mr. Bridges 2 chequuens to drink with you (in case you are in towne) & Brother John, & Coz Charles, w'' I w'' call to mind is a present worth y"^ notice. I heartily wish you health and prosperity (& as the season invites) amerry Xmas with many succeeding. I respectfully remain dear brother, Your most affec* Brother Thomas Darley. The statements that have from time to time been made, that the Darley Arabian belonged to the Kehilan Eas el Fedawi family, are therefore now shown to be incorrect, and also that he was foaled in 1700, and not in 1702, as has also been published. With war risks added to the usual ones inseparable from so long a voyage, especially before the days of steam transport, the anxiety must have been great until the colt was safely arrived at his future Yorkshire home ; but if it had only been known at the time that the horse was the most valuable one ever known, how intensified would FOREIGN HORSES 23 have been the anxious moments regarding him ! Race- horses of the highest class, hunters, coach-horses, hackneys, trotters, and ponies, all claim descent in every civilised nation from that bay colt with " a blaze downe his face, something of the largest." If any mishap had happened to him on the voyage, or if Mr. Thomas Darley, tempted by "a considerable price," had resold him at Aleppo, England would have known no Flying Childers, no Eclipse, and might never have assumed that commanding position in manufaeturing the race of thoroughbreds, which has since been hers. It is true that the other two great Eastern horses already mentioned would have effected much, and the services of the three were necessary to achieve the magnificent result we can now boast of ; but undoubtedly the greatest of the three was the Darley Arabian, and his blood now predominates over the other two combined. A full-length portrait in oils still hangs on the walls at Aldby Park, and is evidently an excellent likeness of the horse, with the precise markings mentioned by the consul at Aleppo. Of the other two famous progenitors of our present thoroughbreds little is known of the Byerley Turk, beyond that he was ridden by his owner. Captain Byerley, as a charger during King William's campaign in Ireland (1689) ; and had been obtained by him as a prize of warfare, when its then rider, an Emir, had been slain in a battle with the Turks. The Godolphin Arabian was imported in 1726, stood 14.2, and was a Jilfan Stam el Bulad. His story is a romance of the Turf. The legend runs that the horse was sent as a present by the Emperor of Morocco to Louis XIV. ; and the black groom in charge of him was given orders never to lose sight of him, so long as the horse lived. Such were the spirits of the animal that he proved too great a handful for the royal grooms, and in order to tame him he was handed over to the chief of the kitchen, to be employed daily in fetching the requirements of the king's household. Even the hard work he then went through could not subdue his spirit, and so it befell 24 THE HORSE he was sold to a water-carrier, and descended to the meanest servitude. Through all his misfortunes, however, he was attended by the faithful Moor, who scrupulously carried out the orders he had received. One fine morning it befell that the wife of a well-to-do Quaker living in Paris pre- sented her husband with a little son. In gratitude the happy father registered a resolve to do some kind action that day, and taking his hat sallied forth into the streets. There had been a sharp frost, and the roads were slippery, and presently Mr. Coke was witness to a horse falling with a water-cart to which he was harnessed. The man in charge commenced to beat the horse without mercy, whereupon Mr. Coke, mindful of the purpose for which he had come out, remonstrated with the driver for his cruelty, and eventually purchased the animal for £3. Mr. Coke then found himself in a dilemma as to the dis- posal of his newly-acquired property ; but the Moor, who was as usual watching his charge, came up to him, and unfolding the whole history of the horse offered his services in looking after the animal, which Mr. Coke was only too glad to accept ; and thus he learned the undoubted value of the animal he had so strangely acquired. The horse was imported to England, was resold to Earl Godolphin, the heir to the Dukedom of Leeds, and was then sent to Gog and Magog, an estate of the Duke's about four miles from Cambridge, where the Duke main- tained a breeding stud ; and there the horse remained for three years in the humble and unsatisfying position of " teasing " the lord of the harem, Hobgoblin, into carrying out his duties. Each year a mare, Roxana by name, had been brought into the presence of the two, but in 1781 the Godolphin's passions overcame him ; he broke loose from the groom, and fought Hobgoblin with such fury he killed him before they could be separated. Fortunately for the Godolphin, and still more fortunately for the Turf, it was decided to promote him to be sultan in the place of the vanquished Hobgoblin, no doubt on the principle that " the brave deserve the fair." Directly his first produce made their appearance on the race-course they justified the FOREIGN HORSES 25 honour which had befallen to their sire by sweeping every- thing before them, and a host of his sons and daughters took rank amongst the great stud celebrities of their day. It is rather remarkable, however, that his descendent in tail-male, the famous and undefeated Barcaldine, and also his sire Solon, should be possessed of that fury which carried their great ancestor victorously through the duel with Hobgoblin, for they were two of the vilest-tempered horses of their own or any other day. Yet honour should be paid where honour is due, and the Godolphin established a great line, which has been adorned by the mighty deeds of some of our most famous horses. Although sent as a present by the Emperor of Morocco, and Syria is a long way from Morocco, Lady Anne Blunt gives in a letter these cogent reasons for giving credit to the statement that the horse was an Arabian, and not a Barb : — " Then, as to the Emperor of Morocco, if he wished to make a present to the King of France, he would certainly have preferred to give a stallion brought from Arabia, rather than a local one. To this day it is, and has been for centuries, customary in North Africa to send to Arabia for anything wanted to be specially good. At least, I have heard instances of this and been informed that it is so. "His personal stable name being 'Sham' — the Arabic word for Syria — implies importation via Syria. I say via Syria, as I should imagine he must have been from a desert tribe, since his portrait is not a bit like any of the many Barbs I saw in Algeria ; nor is it like the Syrian country-breds, so-called Arabs (with much Arab blood in them, but nothing pure remaining) which one sees brought from Syria (and sometimes entered in the G.S.B., some that one knows cannot be real). In 1881 I saw a beautiful bay four-year-old mare in Ali Pasha Sherif's stud in Cairo, with a crest the image of the Godolphin Arabian's, and otherwise resembling him." Before taking leave of this subject, honourable mention must be made of the magnificent stud of Arabians at the Grabbet Park stud. There, gathered together by the un- 26 THE HORSE remitting trouble and vast expense of Lady Anne Blunt and Mr. Wilfrid Blunt, may be seen magnificent specimens of the bluest blood of the desert ; and the judicious care and rearing of these Eastern treasures has built up a reputation renowned throughout the world. From all quarters of the globe eager purchasers make long journeys to acquire some of the invaluable blood, to enrich that of their own home-bred stock, while the only nation apathetic in this respect, it must be allowed, is our own. England, it must be confessed, has not learned to appreciate the Arabian as he deserves. With the rapid growth of mechanical transport, and the consequent serious dimi- nution in horse-breeding by the nation, it seems scarcely probable she will ever wake up to the opportunity she now possesses, that will only too surely slip away from her grasp altogether. Barbs. We are accustomed to look upon the Barb horse as the first cousin of the Arabian, though some persons claim that he is the elder brother. The Libyan horses were famous from very early times, and King Solomon showed his appreciation of them by sending into Egypt to buy horses, for which he paid an hundred and fifty shekels of silver (1 Kings x.), though the value is somewhat discounted when we are told in verse 21 that silver "was nothing accounted for in the days of King Solomon." He could only have sent so far to purchase horses for either, or both, of two reasons : that he could not buy sufficient horses at home, or that Libyan horses were the best that could be procured. The Barb and the Arabian differ so much in appearance that the cleavage between them must have taken place many ages ago, presuming both are descended from the slender Hipparion, the one with the hollow depression in front of the orbit. In evolving the thoroughbred horse the Barb has taken as large a share as the Arabian, and certainly resembles it more in general appearance. Many Barbs are perfect FOREIGN HORSES 27 likenesses of small thoroughbreds, especially in the manner of carrying the tail, which is not held in the pronounced arch so characteristic of the Arabian. In the point of endurance the Barb is little inferior to the other, if, indeed, it is not the equal ; but in point of racing ability as a rule there is a considerable difference, the ordinary allowance the Barb receives being 14 lbs. But in one important respect it certainly is superior, being a capital hack, rarely stumbling, an advantage which, unfortunately, cannot be claimed for its rival. This no doubt is the result of the different conditions prevailing in the respective countries, for Morocco is a rough, mountainous one, where the paces chiefly required are the trot and the walk. The Arabian, on the contrary, is not called upon to trot, only to walk, canter, and gallop, and long centuries have developed the special paces which are most desired. The purest Barbs are found in the western portion of Morocco ; for the invasion of Sidi-Okba into Africa, and still later the invasions of the fifth and sixth centuries after the Hegira, must have caused much mingling of blood in the eastern part of the country, through the Arabian horses the invaders brought with them. The Western Barbs have little or no trace of Arabian blood in their appearance or general characteristics.* In the neighbourhood of Algiers the Barbs are much intermingled with Arabian blood, introduced by the French ; and the dwellers in the desert also possess some good Arabian strains. Throughout Morocco, however, a vitia- ting influence has long been at work, and has made great inroads into the purity of the breed in recent years — the pernicious practice of almost universal mule-breeding. * "A prevailing drawback to the improvement of the breed is men- tioned by Kaid Sir Harry Maclean as follows : ' There is an old custom all over Morocco, except in Tafelet, that Governors can seize all exceptional good horses for the Sultan, and this is greatly the reason that the breed has deteriorated so much. Only Moors who have Foreign protection are able to breed good horses, and most of them have a good deal of English and French blood. In Tafelet the Governors have not the same power, and the tribes there would not submit to this.' " (Drimnin House, Tangier, October 8, 1911.) 28 THE HORSE However much scientists may teach the doctrine that the subsequent offspring are not affected by any influence resulting from a former alliance, practical horsemen will not endorse their teaching. The Moors themselves univer- sally admit, and deplore, the custom, but— the prices for a good mule are so tempting they cannot refrain from breeding as many as they can. In only very few instances are animals to be now found free from the taint of the donkey amongst their female ancestors. Too often it can be detected by the shape of the foot, and there is also often a faint list on the back, sometimes stripes inside the fore- legs, and very occasionally a faint marking at the withers, in the subsequent foals of a mare which has bred a mule. Barbs must have been imported into England in very early days ; and it is on record that Alexander I. of Scot- land imported two in the reign of Henry I. of England, presenting one to that king and the other to the Church of St. Andrew's. Of the Barbs there are three chief breeds, Mogador being the nearest port to their natural home. 1. Ahda. These are fine-bred, rather narrow-girthed, light-fleshed horses, showing great quality, and in general appearance like an English race-horse — in fact, it is impossible to discern at the first glance that they are not thoroughbreds. In height they are about 15 hands, though they are frequently taller, and occasionally reach 15.3. They are bred near the coast of Mogador. 2. Shaioya. A strong, powerful, deep-bodied race, with great girth, and short-legged. The general type is that of the English Galloway, but with more appearance of breeding. In height, about 15 hands to 15-1^. These are excellent horses for work, strong constitutioned, with big bone. They are fast, and stay well, and are bred in the interior, behind Mogador. At Welbeck the Duke of Portland has a breed of Lippasano e-e c < l> nl O ^ f5 i^'yi oi :S N— 1 < ^i^ O i-'X 2 " '•^■<.ii "s ^ FOREIGN HORSES 29 horses, which are so like the Shawya Barbs it seems probable they derive from this source. At Copgrove Hall, in Yorkshire, Admiral Sir Francis Bridgeman has a Barb stallion, Carnival, a winner at Islington, who has sired some excellent stock, and is an undoubted Shawya from his appearance. His colour, too, is typical of the breed, white being a prevailing colour amongst animals of this strain. 3. Ducal la. An intermediate type between the other two, combining the characteristics of both. It is bred near the coast. Besides these distinct breeds is the ordinary hack, termed " Kedar," with high knee action, and carrying the head well up ; very suitable for its purpose, and a docile riding horse. Nearly forty years ago Captain Parker Gilhnore wrote his experiences of three years' sojourn in the East, and gave as his opinion that the chief cause which tends to pro- duce dissimilarity in the action between Arabians and Barb horses is the different character of the districts in which each is reared. Where the high-caste Arabian is brought up the country is undulating, sandy, and sparsely covered with vegetation, and there the mare and colt can gallop without danger. But in Barbary it is rough, rocky, and mountainous, intersected with ravines, and in many por- tions thickly covered with shrubs. On such ground no horse can gallop with safety, and at any great pace would be sure to come to grief. He therefore trots, keeping his legs well under him, and is thus able to turn on one side or the other with great facility. The nature of the ground also causes him to raise his feet high at each step. And thus is produced a signal example of the survival of the fittest. Spanish Hokses, The " Genet." When considering the foreign elements in our present horses, the share the Spanish genet has had in the making of them must not be lost sight of. They are a hardy. 30 THE HORSE docile, good-constitutioned race ; but, like Eastern horses in general, nature must not be interfered with, for geldings are only too prone to lose their natural characteristics. When subjected to a surgeon's knife they become timid creatures, apt to shy whether there is reason or no. Amongst many good qualities they have splendid bone, with excellent hocks and knees ; and when I first lived in Spain nothing struck me more than the splendid limbs almost every animal had. They are capital hacks, bend the knees, and flex the hocks well, and seldom make a false step ; they walk and trot well, but galloping is not one of their paces, unless they are crossed with Eastern or English blood. They are low in stature, especially in Andalusia, but still they are lengthy, and are "horses," not " ponies," and the want of size is chiefly attributable to the arid nature of their country during the long summer, when no rain falls for months, and food is therefore diflicult to obtain. Their sure-footedness is remarkable, over ground worse even than the most rugged parts of Dartmoor, as any one hunting with the Calpe Hunt, either in the cork-woods or amongst the "craigs," will cordially endorse. When stabled their food is barley and chopped straw, and on this they thrive and do well. It used to be an interesting sight to watch an Andalusian farmer winnowing his grain. Some hard ground having been selected, droves of mares, many in foal, were tied in a long line by their necks, as many as thirty sometimes being in one string, and then they were driven round and round, hour after hour, over piles of barley straw laid on the ground. Often the mares had sharp shoes on their fore-feet to assist in breaking up the straw into little bits and treading out the grain, and this was the only use the mares were generally ever put to. At other times they ran in large droves, and in the spring of the year stallions were turned out amongst them. As soon as the straw was adjudged to have been broken up sufficiently, and all the grain had been detached, the mares were withdrawn ; and the next process was to cast the dusty mass high into the air with shovels when a brisk breeze was blowing, which quickly blew away the dust FOREIGN HORSES 31 in clouds, while the straw was carried a short distance away, collecting together in a huge mass, and the heavier grain fell in a large heap close by. It was a primitive way of threshing, but it was cheap and effected its purpose, and no doubt had been carried on in the same way for countless ages. The grain was then collected and the straw put in the barn, and this was the everyday provender throughout the country. The Spanish horse has need of first-rate legs and feet, for he is subjected to tests which would make an English job- master quickly protest. There was nothing an ambitious young caballero loved more than when, got up in his very best, and mounted on his favourite steed, he galloped for about fifty or a hundred yards as hard as ever he could go, on the ill-paved street, and then with one jerk of his cruelly powerful bit stopped the animal dead in one stride, before an admiring crowd. Then he would turn round and gallop back in the same way, and repeat the performance several times. With an English horse one would expect to find a curb sprung or very swollen legs and joints the next morning, but I never knew a Spanish horse any the worse for such a performance. When trotting the exceeding suppleness of the limbs is remarkable, especially the knees and fetlocks which are most elastic, but the action is not always true, for dishing, such an eyesore to an Englishman, is rather admired in Spain if the horse lifts his knees well up. As a rule they are not handsome horses, but have big back-ribs ; and owing to their vicinity to Morocco, and the long period of rule of the Moors in the South of Spain — they held Andalusia eight hundred years — there is a great deal of Barb blood even in the commonest horses. They are wonderful pack animals, carrying enormous loads for hours over very rough moun- tainous paths, and probably very much resemble the old pack-horse of England. There is no cart-horse blood in them, and therefore they respond at once when crossed with Eastern or thoroughbred blood, so that in a couple of generations they look almost hke thoroughbreds. It was the palmy days of Spanish racing when I was there, and 32 THE HORSE breeders were vieing with one another to produce animals to win races, many of which were valuable, for country- bred horses. What was found to be the best system was to cross the country mare with an Arabian, and then follow on with the thoroughbred horse. The Arabian at once knocked out the ungainly points, the very low croup and long back, and put a fashion into the progeny which remained for generations, and this was seldom effected by using an English sire in the first instance. No doubt good horses were occasionally bred by so doing, but then in all prob- ability the mare was an exceptionally shapely animal, and most likely had some Barb breeding" in the background which was not known. I have also seen good horses bred by using the English horse first, and then an Arabian. For the general run of mares, however, experience seemed to teach that it was preferable to use an Arabian sire first, and then to continue with English thoroughbred ones for subsequent generations. It should be added that roaring and whistling are quite unknown amongst them, possibly due to the very dry climate. I even remember an English thoroughbred mare being taken out there " that made a noise," which in the course of twelve months became so perfectly clear in her respiratory organs she would have passed any veterinary examination, and have received a certificate of being " sound in wind." CHAPTEE III THOROUGHBEED HORSES EVOLVED from the original sources of Eastern blood, and our own native racing stock, are our present thoroughbred horses, which have so often been the theme of brilliant writers that it seems difficult to approach the subject from a fresh standpoint. " Good wine needs no bush," however, while long familiarity has not in my case induced the contempt it is usually supposed to instil ; for, on the contrary, my admiration for the intelligence, the usefulness, the courage, and the enduring capacity of the breed remains just as great as time goes on. Excepting possibly where ponderous weight is the chief attribute, there is no race which is not improved by a dash of thoroughbred blood, and without it there is apt to be lacking the metal and fire which are so necessary for the completion of arduous tasks. Ask a horse without breeding to gallop through two or three deep fields, and long before the end is reached the animal is reduced to a walk, and has no energy to surmount a stiff fence without a rest ; yet a well-bred animal, apparently not equal to carrying half the weight, will gallantly gallop on, carrying quite as heavy a weight as the other, and take the fence without a pause. Though many an active under-bred horse is gifted with a surprising burst of speed for a short distance, it cannot sustain the effort, and is soon done up, and it is in the power of maintaining pace and strength when blown that the thoroughbred horse excels all others. Moreover, a good-tempered, docile blood- horse can scarcely be put to any description of work in which he will not beat the low-bred animal, in proportion to the powers of the individual. Even in moving heavy 4 33 34 THE HORSE weights it is astounding what a Hght-looking thoroughbred horse can achieve, as may often be seen in cabs, omnibuses, and tram-cars — though mechanical traction is so rapidly usurping the place hitherto held by horses, that such spectacles must inevitably become much scarcer in the future. There is on record a match which took place at Dycer's Reposi- tory in Stephen's Green, Dublin, about sixty years ago (often related to me by my old friend, the late Mr. Joseph Studholme, of Ballyeighan, King's County, who was well cognisant of all the details, his neighbour, the late Mr. J. Bennet, of Grange, having been chosen the umpire). The question which was to be solved was whether a thoroughbred could stand up under as great a weight as a low-bred horse. Unfortunately I cannot give the actual details, through having mislaid my notes of the occurrence, but substantially what happened was this. Only two-year-olds could be obtained at such short notice to champion each race, and weight was piled up until the cart-bred animal lay down. The thoroughbred not only stood up under the same burthen, but also actually walked out of the yard with the weight on its back, which amounted to nearly 24 stone. The pure- bred horse is not, however, intended by nature for contests of this description, nor is his active temperament adapted to a long-sustained dead pull, for though his high courage may induce him to do his best, the more phlegmatic nature of the Shire, or Clydesdale, or Suffolk Punch, is better suited to jobs of this description. The metier of the thoroughbred horse is speed, activity, and a high state of nervous energy, and this especially adapts him for the race-course, which is the most effective test that could possibly be conceived ; while the animals which pass this ordeal with credit are invaluable as pro- genitors of the various light breeds of horses, whether hunters, hacks, cavalry remounts, or light harness horses. The training for a race searches out any weak spot in limb or constitution, while the actual contest exposes the working of the mechanism, and tests the courage to the last degree. It is in this respect that the showyard system is weak, for a great winner of prizes may never have done a day's work in 3 £ 2 ^ct •5 S^ , • aj= o THOROUGHBRED HORSES 35 his life, and possess a soft spot which is sure to be trans- mitted to its half-bred progeny. Moreover, quahties allowed to lie dormant are very apt to wither from inanition and disappear in the course of time, and the progeny of the indolent and luxurious are inclined to become even more so than the parents. The world-famous Oberlandstallmeister, H.E. Count Lehndorff, who for a great number of years has been entrusted by the German Government to apply, at his discretion, the annual sum of money voted by the Govern- ment for the purchase of stallions and brood-mares for their different studs, has placed on record in his " Horse-breeding Eecollections " his views about the English thoroughbred horse, and they are so applicable to the present subject, that I venture to quote them here : — *' The principal requisite in a good race-horse is sound- ness, again soundness and nothing but soundness ; and the object of the thoroughbred is to imbue the limbs, the constitution, and the nerves of the half-bred horse with that essential quality, and thereby enhance its capabilities. " The thoroughbred can, however, fulfil its mission only provided the yearly produce be continually subjected to severe trials in public. The only appropriate test, proved by the experience of two centuries, is the race-course. The last struggle for victory, in which culminates the exertion of the racer, results from the co-operation of the intellectual, the physical, and the mechanical qualities of the horse, the development of which combined power is higher and more reliable than any that can be obtained in the same animal by other means. The combination of those three qualities forms the value of the horse destined for fast work : the mechanical, in respect to the outward shape and con- struction ; the physical, as regards the soundness and normal development of the digestive organs and motive power ; the intellectual, or the will and the energy to put the other two into motion and persevere to the utmost. The attained speed is not the aim but only the gauge of the per- formance. " The grand ideal principle which places this test so 36 THE HORSE incomparably higher than any other, based on the individual opinion of one or more judges, is the absolute and blind justice, personified in the inflexible winning-post, which alone decides on the race-course ; and the irrefutable certainty that neither fashion nor fancy, neither favour nor hatred, neither personal prejudice nor time-serving — frequently observable in the awards at horse-shows — have biased the decision of hotly contested struggles as recorded in the Eacing Calendar for the space of 170 years. This it is that gives the English thoroughbred horse a value for breeding purposes unequalled and looked for in vain in any other species of animal creation. " In the production of our half-breds it has become an absolute necessity to use thoroughbred stallions not only with performances of a high order, but also that our cavalry horses may answer certain conditions and forms about make and shape laid down in order to prevent their deterioration." Fanatics who would put an end to racing, looking only from the one-sided view that an opportunity for gambling is thereby supplied, and quite ignoring the fact, only too notorious, that in these days the chief wagering which takes place amongst the middle and lower classes is upon football matches, and even cricket matches, would inflict such a crushing blow on all the different breeds of light horses as they can be little aware of, and which, if long continued, would reduce horses again to almost " prairie " value. If further witness is required as to the great value of thoroughbred blood in improving other breeds, the very thoughtful chapter should be studied on the " Value of the Thoroughbred for other Breeds," by Baron Burchard von Oettingen, in his invaluable work, " Horse Breeding in Theory and Practice," the fruit of his many years of observation whilst holding the post of Landstallmeister and Director of the Eoyal Stud at Trakehnen. On p. 50 he remarks : " All half-bred horses of the old and new world, even the Trotters, have by mingling with the Thoroughbred, produced the required steel in their breeds, which otherwise could not have been produced as well and as quickly. Even THOROUGHBRED HORSES 87 the breeds of the Steppes of Kussia, America, and Australia, have, with the aid of the Thoroughbred stallions (often unfortunately of very low character quality), influenced the capabilities of their horses. When the celebrated Cossack officer, Hetman Platoff (the celebrated stallion, Hetman Platoff, born 1836, was called after him), about a hundred years ago, during the fight for liberty against Napoleon in the West of Europe, learned to know and to esteem the Thoroughbred and other fine breeds derived from the same, he caused to be imported many Thoroughbred stallions of good and of the best class, into the Cossack breeding stables near the Don, and the neighbouring Steppe breeding- places. The consequence was that Russian cavalry soon after, in fact up to the middle of the last century, were mounted on the best horses an army ever possessed." A study of the earliest tap-roots of the various famihes which constitute the thoroughbred of to-day, about fifty in number, discloses the fact that a number of them were Barb mares, and some of them so-called Royal mares ; but in no case, as far as is known, were any of them pure Arabian mares ; and since the Arabian is fleeter, and in many respects superior, to the Barb, the tap-roots might have commenced from superior sources than was the case. The Royal mares may, indeed, have included a pure Arabian among their number, for what their breeding was can now never be known, Charles II. received as part of the dowry of his Portuguese wife, Catherine of Braganza, Tangiers in Morocco, and subse- quently dispatched his Master of the Horse in quest of horses for the royal stables, and the mares brought over by him have since been called Royal mares ; but it must not be forgotten that long before that date there was racing in England, and Gervase Markham, writing in the reign of King James I., bears testimony to the excellence of the English race-horse of that period. He writes : — " Again, for swiftness, what nation hath brought forth that horse which hath exceeded the English — when the best Barbaries that ever were in their prime, I saw 38 THE HORSE them overrunne by a black hobbie at Salisbury ; yet that hobbie was more overrunne by a horse called Valen- tine, which Valentine neither in hunting nor running was ever equalled, yet was a plain-bred English horse both by syre and dam ? Again for infinite labour and long endurance, which is to be desired in our hunting matches, I have not seen a horse to compare with the English. He is of tolerable shape, strong, valiant, and durable." One hundred and fifty years later the opinion of Gervase Markham as to the superiority of English horses on the race-course, was not shared by another very close observer which possibly may be accounted for by the frequent importations that had been made of high-class Arabians during the intervening years, as well as the natural result of stock being bred from imported Barbs and reared in the favourable climate and rich pastures of England. In " A Dissertation on Horses," published in 1756, William Osmer makes the assertion, " Now as nothing is more certain than that no Horses but those of blood can race in our days ... I do here lay it down as a certain truth, that no Horses but such as come from foreign countries, or which are of extraction totally foreign, can race. In this opinion every man will readily join me, and this opinion will be confirmed by every man's experience and observation. . . . Such horses who have the finest texture, elegance of shape, and most pro- portion, are the best racers, let their blood be of what kind it will, always supposing it to be totally foreign." It is by working on the lines thus indicated that the present magnificent specimens of thoroughbred horses of the highest class have been evolved, but in breeding for speed alone, necessitated chiefly by the prevalence of very short-distance races, and especially the excess of two-year-old contests, many most serviceable qualities are overlooked, to the detri- ment of the breed in general. Before the development of railways, with their easy transit of competitors from their training grounds to the scene of contest, the mere fact of having to travel long distances by road necessitated the employment of hardy, good-constitutioned animals, V i 'Jb L^T----. ■■ ' ';''^H Fr-=^- "t l(^l &r^':. .' ^^m Si'^' ' ^^^^^^^B »v V - ' g^B Ss^e-' ''' ^^3^r J| 1 ^ ^^k ^2-.'t: ^^S -y^^l ^^pv' ^WV B^^^jV' i^"i r*p5£;- '.•'. --* • •''■/"' ■ .< • " ' * i . ■ '>^ , «.; . J. * 0 = 6 c-o" >< P nr:; P rt e c •" 5 THOROUGHBRED HORSES 39 not easily upset by the constant change of stables or by the various incidents met with en route, which could be depended upon to feed with a hearty appetite at the end of each day's journey, a washy, bad feeder standing little chance of success in the race itself. Moreover, it required a capital constitution and the soundest of limbs to run a succession of long-distance heats, which then were the fashionable races of the time. The type of animal required was, therefore, a short-legged, round-barrelled animal, eminently adapted to improve the half-bred horses in the district in which he might be located, whenever his services were required in another sphere. It is no longer a necessity to employ such true-shaped animals to gain success in modern racing ; and no matter how leggy or malformed a horse may be, provided he only possesses the gift of speed he is eagerly sought, and also used as a sire, the glamour of success causing breeders to overlook his imperfections. Any one whose mission it is to select a stallion for breed- ing hunters knows only too well the extreme difficulty there is in finding a true-shaped stallion, and may visit many training stables and look over scores of animals before his wants can be satisfied, even though he may be prepared to pay a considerable price. He will, more- over, see large numbers of horses who do not come up to his ideal, who have won races in their heyday, and would willingly be sold at a much less figure than he is ready to give for the sort required. Baron Burchard von Oettingen has some trenchant observations on the present deterioration of the thorough- bred which afford much food for reflection, and which he traces to the prevalence of running horses at two years old, and, moreover, gives very carefully worked-out figures in support of his contention. Admitting that two-year-olds and three-year-olds have improved in com- parison with older horses, he points out that while the weight-for-age scale has remained the same, as between them, for over one hundred years, thus showing that each of the two ages has corresponded with the other, either 40 THE HORSE advancing or otherwise, yet the scale of weight has con- tinually been lowered between three-year-olds and older horses, showing they have not participated in the improvement claimed for the younger animals. He mentions further : — " From these weight differences it can be seen that the abilities of four, five, and six-j'-ear-olds changed very little up to 1850. An improvement of horses, on the other hand, after six years old gradually ceases altogether. . . . Therefrom it follows that the present four and five-year-old race-horses are each 3J lbs. worse than those in the middle of the last century. ... In breeding, where only two-year-olds improve, one can hardly speak of a general progress. . . . Taken altogether, these observations justify us in assuming that, considered from the standpoint of the altered weight differences, the improvement of race-horses took place up to about the middle of the nineteenth century, and also specially that a favourable development of four-year-old and older horses up to the sixth year existed. Furthermore, that simultaneously with the frequent occurrence of races for two-year-olds partly in the beginning of the year, and with the existence of the many short handicaps, a retro- gression of the development of race-horses after their third year began soon after the second half of the nineteenth century. The time in which the number of two-year-old race-horses began to exceed the number of three-year-olds denotes the turning-point." This statement is quite in accord with the apt remark, so frequently made, that modern race-horses are nearly always at the summit of their powers in the autumn of their three- year-old season. But the Baron has other serious statements to make on the evil influence of early racing, to which he ascribes the increasing lack of fertility among thoroughbred mares, which he proves by taking the statistics from 1851 to the year 1908 :— " On the basis of physiological observations and practical experience, we must assume that the present over-exertion, THOROUGHBRED HORSES 41 especially of the younger thoroughbred stock, for many consecutive generations, has an unfavourable influence on the constitution. These unfavourable effects, which are an especial consequence of the many early races of two-year- olds, are distinctly recognisable, also outside the course, by many retrogressive signs. The most conspicuous of these consists in the fairly regular decrease of the percentage of pregnant mares, from about 80 per cent, in the year 1851 to 70 per cent, in recent years. " It may further be pointed out that the length of life of stallions is slowly decreasing, which is all the more remark- able, as the progress of hygiene, improved stabling, and other conditions, as well as the more reasonable training of horses, would lead one to expect longer lives. . . . The number of stallions which have attained twenty-five years and more has been in no decade greater than in that of 1850 to 1859, namely, thirty. Already in the following two decades a distinct decrease is recognisable : 1860 to 1869, twenty-four stallions ; and 1870 to 1879, twenty stallions." Other practical men testify also to the alteration in the physique of the modern race-horse. John Osborne, the celebrated jockey, who rode his first race in 184:6, and is still engaged in training horses, states in " Ashgill and Eadcliffe," p. 428 : " Horses are very much lighter now ; they have neither the bone nor the substance that thorough- breds had fifty years ago. Of course in the old times they were sweated a good deal. Heavy cloths were put on them, and they were galloped three and four miles in them. That plan has been discontinued for many years. I don't know that sweating is weakening to a horse. Old John Scott was a great believer in bleeding and sweating. I am certain that the constitution of horses of the present day would not stand such work ; the modern breed is neither so robust nor so strong. Formerly it was quite a common thing for horses to run three- and four-mile heats. If they were sub- jected to that now they wouldn't be able to come out of the stable for a month after. ... I am fully convinced the constitution of horses of the present day is not as strong as it was forty or fifty years ago." 42 THE HORSE There is no doubt the successful animal of to-day is a slimmer, more elongated animal than in the old road- travelling, heat-racing days, and this is well shown in comparing the admirable series of photographs of the two typical horses of their day, Eclipse and Persimmon, pub- lished by the Field journal. The skeleton of the former shows a round-barrelled animal, with remarkably well- sprung ribs, who must have had a back like a ram, possess- ing a first-rate constitution. The front and side views of his skull also corroborate this, while the width between the eyes gives evidence of a large brain within. Except that his withers are so low, the inference is that he would be likely to be a more useful sire for getting hardy stock than the other, who does not appear in so favourable a light in these respects. All my early acquaintances held the same opinion of the alteration in conformation of the thorough- bred horse during the nineteenth century, and were unanimous that the race-horses of their youth were shorter- legged and more hunter-like ; and while they were probably not so speedy, they were undoubtedly much hardier and stouter than those we have now. Johnny Doyle, the crack jockey of Ireland in his day, who commenced his career at a race meeting held in Sharavogue Park in 1803, was emphatic on this point, especially stating to me in 1873 that the horses of his early days were much deeper-bodied than now. The owner of Sharavogue Park, Colonel Hon. J. Westenra, held the same opinion, and he was the breeder of Whim, by Drone, the dam of Chanticleer ; her portrait, which hung in his dining-room, fully bore out his state- ments. He also bred the great Freney, by Roller, the celebrated four-miler of his day. Lastly, the famous old racing judge, Mr. Richard Johnston, who could remember seeing Blacklock win at York in 1819, and who lived almost to the end of the century, therefore being especially qualified to form an opinion, once stated to me that the race- horses of his early days "were much stouter and hardier, though undoubtedly not so speedy. Sixteen-hand horses were quite common then, and I do not see much difference in actual height. The shape and appearance, though, has THOROUGHBRED HORSES 43 changed very much, and the older horses were, as a rule, much deeper- bodied and shorter-legged and more hunter-like than they are now." While no one disputes that the best horses of to-day are in advance of their ancestors, such animals are not available to sire the ordinary utility horse, whose fathers must be sought in a much lower class. It is these which are held to be less truly shaped and of a less hardy nature than a century ago ; and while heat-racing and travelling by road have been swept away for ever, it may be well to consider whether any causes exist for the present state of things, and whether it could be altered for the better. To begin with, the improvement of the breed is scarcely likely to be furthered by the racing of immature two-year-olds, generation after generation ; nor is the vast prevalence of races under a mile likely to be of much assistance. It is true the sharp, quick horse is better adapted for crossing a country, and is a decidedly more useful animal as a sire, than the slow, plod- ding animal which may be a stayer, but has no pace or activity; but there is "reason in roasting eggs," and the horse which dies away after five furlongs is scarcely likely to produce stout stock. A mile is a fair criterion of combined speed and stoutness, and races under that distance should not be given much encouragement. Another probable reason for want of stamina is the very close inbreeding which is the fashion of the day, and many persons seem to imagine that so long as an animal can trace several lines of descent from a recent famous ancestor, nothing better can be desired. They overlook the probability of undesir- able points being inherited, as well as good ones, and, indeed, in practice it is found that such is usually the case, while often the good ones seem to be swamped by the bad ones. Though in all animals a very near affinity between the parents seems almost necessary as a starting-point to fix a breed, it cannot be continued with advantage, and if persevered in the offspring may be comely to gaze upon, but will surely lack hardiness of constitution, while the mental faculties will either be feeble, almost to idiocy, or else the temperament will be nervous and excitable and hot- tempered in the extreme. 44 THE HORSE Another regrettable cause for the lack of big bony sires, suitable for country stallions, is the prevalent practice of putting aside such animals for cross-country work if they have not sufficient pace for racing on the flat, and previous to teaching them to jump rendering them incapable of propagating their species. There is an idea now that stallions are more cunning and less to be depended on than geldings, and also are more difficult to train, requiring a greater amount of work through the extra development of crest, and being generally more lusty in habit. This used not to be a bagbear in the days when sweating in clothing was the general practice, and an extra hood or two soon had the desired effect of reducing too large a crest. Any one visiting our steeplechase courses may note numbers of fine, powerful, weight-carrying thoroughbreds, which would have been invaluable as sires in country districts, had they not been ruthlessly denied the pleasures of paternity. In breeding race-horses it is imperative to choose mares of "running" blood, but it is not absolutely necessary they should have been great winners themselves, although this is very desirable if they have not been subjected too long to the ordeal of severe training, especially as two-year-olds. The late Lord Falmouth frequently expressed the opinion that mares should be sent to the stud after their three-yeax- old season on the Turf, and his wonderful success entitles his opinion to be considered of the greatest weight. The famous Sir Charles Knightley held as an article of faith that two-year-old racing was most pernicious, stating his con- viction that at a time when the young animal ought to be making its frame — it is most striking how a two-year- old suddenly seems to change into a " horse " in the middle of the summer — and especially developing its internal organs with future hopes of maternity, it is unreasonable to expect it to be able to do so to advantage when every effort is being made in its training to denude it of fat, and to increase its muscles to the greatest extent. The system cannot be trusted to stand a dual strain, and the development of one quality must be at the expense of an- other. It is therefore not a matter for wonder that in o _^S 2 '^^ o THOROUGHBRED HORSES 45 visiting stud farms mares should be pointed out as most successful dams, which for some reason have either never been trained — as instances taken at random may be men- tioned Auchnafree, the dam of Kobbie Burns, who could not be trained owing to a club-foot, and Suicide, the dam of Amphion, who had a crippled hind-leg — or who have been early sent to the stud, such as Mint Sauce, the dam of the great Minting. Though these instances could be multiplied to a large extent, it is still preferable that the dam should have been in training, for by this means alone can be tested the qualities of docility and gameness, both attributes of a race-horse of the highest value, which the dam may be expected to transmit to her offspring. The Bruce Lowe Figure System. Before quitting this part of the subject it may be as well to revert to the theory of the Figure System, as devised by the late Mr. Bruce Lowe and extended by his friend, Mr. WiUiam Allison, M.A., which is so freely commented on and often derided. We Britishers are a stubborn race, slow to assimilate new ideas, and the great value of Mr. Bruce Lowe's researches were much more quickly grasped by foreign breeders than by our own. "What nonsense," said the latter, "to imagine a mare, who lived perhaps one hundred and fifty years ago, can now influence her descendants ! Of course we all know the importance of breeding back to a good mare of recent date, but the idea of setting any value upon a mare who lived all that time ago ! Well, I am not going to believe it at any rate ! " Pace, Mr. Breeder ! Facts, as the Highlander remarked, " are chiels that winna ding." There have been great mares, of what our "high priest" terms "outside families," in plenty, but they have left no descendants of any renown, though they have been mated again and again with famous sires. It is a complete verification of the survival of the fittest, and it never was sought to force any family to the front, at the expense of others, except through the test of accomplished 46 THE HORSE facts. What Mr. Bruce Lowe did was this : taking certain of the highest class three-year-old races as his standing- point, he worked out the number of the descendants of each of the original mares who had won these races, and the family which had won the most he placed No. 1 ; and the other families in due order according to their number of wins. Any thinking man, wishing to breed the winner of a great race, would surely choose for his matron a mare which belonged to a family that had been frequently successful, and not select one from a family which had never won one at all ! Both mares might be equally good- looking and truly shaped, and there might be nothing to choose between them as far as the eye could judge, and yet it would be a not very intelligent act to proceed to breed from the mare of the unsuccessful family, in preference to the one that came from the winning strain ! Moreover, if any other important weight-for-age races are taken, and in any of the chief foreign racing countries, the same winning families come invariably to the front, though abroad their order sometimes changes a little, generally owing to the prevalence, or otherwise, of mares of any particular family in that particular country. In order to show how Mr. Bruce Lowe's system works out, some tables of the different families are here appended for sixty years — ^1850-1909 — which have won any of the classic races he took as a test. Although in this limited period the placing of the families does not quite accord with that of the fuller tale of years, up to the time of his death, it is strikingly shown how prolific of winners his leading families have been, and what a falling off there is towards the end of the list, which is a very strong proof of the truth of his contention. Though other of the original mares bring the number up to fifty, none of their descendants have won a classic race during this period : — THOROUGHBRED HORSES 47 P3 c!5 EH W EH m w .s ^ 2 pH (p pq >. 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I o o I— I CO (J o H K EH W Pq O CO I— I ^ w -a I o r£2 o y w fi w (U o ^TS o ^H 03 f^ -2 o H o H j3 ^ w O EH ft «o a 5 a s 00 lO it 5 If 5 CD 00 a ) a 3 00 i=l O Hi Hi 03 0 o O 1 ^ ci3 o o pi W .a CZ2 05 (M 00 00 THOROUGHBRED HORSES 57 (^ P3 & o % P3 o w M » O PR a C3 O H >> a a 1 ^ -t= o * (V < t^ pq cS Q eS C73 c3 g a Q SH M (N S (M PS 6 P E^ a H o o Sh P3 HI Hi pq (D CD O (D CQ CO 4) Hi ■TJ ^ H pi o J3 &H o EH pq s^ O 0> 1— I cS CO 05 O ® 00 00 OJ >^ i-H 1-H 1-1 CO CO t- CO GO lO 00 CD O O 00 00 00 05 05 58 THE HORSE P5 H d3 H y^ H 02 H w H co" M ^ < !> O • »-) W "o W a .-> EH m PS >^ <1 m >> >x Ph ^ M ft ■4^ o o w 05 Q M Hi H 1 O 1 C5 H 03 00 w P=q tH Eh O „ E^ -< M ^ O P5 (3 g P^ i c5 hH 77h H CC 02 g fM GO -t3 J <| cc O h^ r5 CO h- 1 O i ■ B -a! o S g P o o 'u o (50 n & 0) H f>» c2 Q ; <^ CO t- 00 S »o 00 05 o o 00 00 00 05 t» r-i r-l iH I-l ^ ^ p. "* j TS EH >^ y^ P5 « P« ^ FQ 1 o ^ g t- ■flj 3 g S o » «« H M n3 o 4^ 'TS (!< a TJl Xfl I O Ph i O I 03 Q W P5 o o Eh ...- iis ^^^^^^■1 ^ S ^■H|^^^^^k^^|>_ ' * ■ ■^' ija^ ^^H HKpl i A ^^9B B^Mr .'■ ■ .y-^ I^H i ^ H. . 'i^flH|^^H ■i ^1 -ego, -^0 3 .yuu ^^'^^ :3^ I 3 o «-' i> J=25 o a .-H HUNTERS 69 possess a big barrel — a good " spur place " it is often termed — for this denotes a strong constitution, and the horse is likely to be a good feeder after hard work ; but while the ribs should be well-hooped, and the larger they are the better, the actual length is not so important as that they should spring from the spine with a good arch. Many a comparatively short-ribbed horse is hardier and a better feeder when his ribs spring well from the back, than another with a much longer length of rib which has a drooping, rather than an arched curve, at the commencement. More- over, the hinder rib must not approach the prominent part of the hip too closely, but leave sufficient room, so that when the hand is placed in the hollow between the last rib and the hip, and the fist is closed except the thumb and little finger, these last can just touch, when fully extended, the respective bones on each side. Without such room the horse can neither gallop nor jump, as he has not liberty to bring forward his hind-legs with sufficient swing. People with a little knowledge are apt to imagine a horse must be tightly ribbed up — with almost no hollow between the rib and the hip — to be a good feeder, but such is not the least necessary ; though horses so fashioned have necessarily good constitutions, since they must possess both large and well-hooped ribs, or they could not cover up the hollow. There are plenty of horses to be found with well- shaped ribs which do not suffer from the defect of being tightly ribbed-up and yet are always ready for their food. Hunters should bend their knees when trotting, and lift their feet well, but without any of the extravagant style of the hackney, which is quite unsuitable for a riding-horse, required to travel fast and far. Preferable indeed to showy action is the daisy-cutting, straight-kneed mode, at one time so prevalent amongst thoroughbred horses when Touchstone was a power in the land, for it was very characteristic of his progeny. Yet at any rate his stock possessed the merit of going fast, which no hackney ever yet succeeded in accomplishing at a gallop. When the fore-foot is extended, close attention must be given to see that the foot is placed level on the ground, neither 70 THE HORSE digging the toe in nor putting too much stress upon the heel, and, moreover, the foot must come to the ground at the full stretch of the stride, and not be drawn back an inch or two, as is not unfrequently the case. Horses thus tight- shouldered cannot gallop in proper form, or extend them- selves for just those few extra inches, when a ditch is suddenly found to be unsuspectedly wide. Some riders never appear to grasp this, and one acquaintance seemed always to buy horses with this defect. Dealers used to lay themselves out for him, and bring him good-looking horses which they could not get a good price for on account of this fault, and he cheerfully bought them, priding himself on his acumen. During many seasons he never owned a horse that could go, though in the stable they looked superb. It never seemed to cross his mind that his own judgment might be in error ! A fault that may sometimes be excused in a first-rate performer is when the trotting action is not absolutely true and the horse dishes more or less. Many a good horse does this — an eyesore no doubt, but still it does not interfere with his going well, though the undue strain thrown on certain parts may provoke a splint to form. The famous hunter sire in Ireland, Haymaker, whose stock was eagerly sought and purchased, seldom sired an animal that was quite true in its action, but he scarcely ever got one that was not a superior performer. A horse which brushes must be an unusually good hunter to retain its place in the stable, for though various kinds of boots may minimise the trouble, brushing gives rise to much extra care and attention, though it may not incapacitate the animal from work. Careful shoeing may often prevent it, and young animals may grow out of the habit as they get older; it is generally caused by the foot, and fetlock, being turned from the true line of the cannon bone. A pigeon-toed horse — one with its toes turned in — seldom hits itself, though the contrary might be expected, but whilst this is an indication of want of speed, turning out the toes is just the reverse. "When trotting a hunter should flex the hocks well, and sharply, and bring the hind-legs under its body with energy, HUNTERS 71 thus showing promise of power in propelHng itself forward, either in the gallop or when leaping. A slovenly mover, which drags its hind-legs with little bending of the hock, should be passed over at once. Character and Appearance. Much of the character of a horse may be learned by studying its countenance, and watching the motion of its ears. Small ears invariably denote temper of some sort, and should be studied for a few moments. If restless the horse will probably be hot-tempered and fidgety, never keeping still, wearying itself and its rider, and far from being a comfort to ride. If the small ears are seen to be constantly pricked forward, look out for shying ; or if laid back, especially if the eye is small and sullen, be very sure that the animal has a sulky temper, is ungenerous in its work, and not to be depended on. The ear to be desired is a large and full one, and kept frequently in motion, without any tendency to restlessness. This is a sign of intelligence, and a quick brain, while a horse which seldom moves its ears is too apt to be lazy, and given to making blunders. A large lop ear, often in motion, is an invariable indication of a docile, sweet-tempered horse, ready to put forth its utmost powers at the call of its rider. While on the subject of the ear, let it be clearly laid down that on no account should the groom be allowed to cut out the thick covering of hair Nature places at the entrance, for mischief may ensue if this is done. It is placed there to keep out dust, rain-drops, and insects, and if either of the latter gain access to the interior the horse may get almost out of control for the time, shaking its head and trying to rid itself of the intruder. The head should be long, and on this depends the length of the animal, for in a well-proportioned one, 2^ heads equal the length from the point of the chest to the remotest part of the haunch. A long head, with plenty of width in the forehead, is sure to belong to an intelligent horse, while a small, pretty head, too often indicates what children term " a silly." Especially is this the case with a gelding. The character of the head should befit the sex, the male having a 72 THE HORSE larger, more bony head, not so pretty as that of a mare. Either sex, with a head which by rights ought to grace the other, is apt to be of abnormal temperament. The nostrils when at rest should be long, and resemble a widish slit, and when dilated expand into a large circular orifice. Especially is this the attribute of high-born Eastern horses, and their descendants our race of thoroughbreds ; but it may be looked for in vain amongst cart-horses, and their progeny for several generations after the introduction of thoroughbred blood. There is no more sure sign or hall- mark of caste. The neck should be light when viewed sideways, but thick through when observed from the saddle, especially in the muscles just behind the setting on of the head, for on the development of this region largely depends the power of staying. The neck should be strong, too, where it is set into the shoulders, and this will probably correspond with the general muscular development of the body. Though the neck should be light and curved gracefully, when seen from the side, it should not be too small in circumference just behind the head, for unless there is plenty of room for the windpipe the misfortune of roaring may be experienced. There is one form of neck which must especially be avoided, known as " a roarer's neck," since a horse thus built almost invariably contracts that malady sooner or later. In this instance the neck is held on high, and is in most respects a powerful neck, but in the middle the throat is enlarged, and there is a noticeable outward curve, somewhat resembling the shape of a stag's throat. Why this should result in roaring seems to be that the nerve of the larynx is kept constantly stretched, and in time the strain becomes too much for it, causing it to become partially paralysed, when roaring follows. A friend used to admire these necks, and nearly every horse in his well-filled stables was so framed, but probably no man ever had so many horses which became roarers. He gave long prices for them, and con- stantly bewailed his bad fortune, but to the day of his death he would not learn the lesson that his judgment was in fault rather than his luck. HUNTERS 73 That a hunter should bridle well and give freely to his bit goes without saying, for it adds immensely to the comfort of the rider as well as to the appearance of the horse ; but unless there is sufficient width in the angle of the jaws, the animal may not be able to bend the neck sufficiently to do so with ease. Many a good hunter pokes his nose out, and is yet a safe conveyance. The width is desirable also in another way, for a jaw may be too close together to give sufficient room for the windpipe, and all first-rate stayers are wide in this region. There should be space enough for the outstretched forefinger to be inserted between the jaws, from the knuckle-joint to the tip of the finger, and less than this should cause the steed to be rejected. The shoulders should be long and well sloped, and the withers sufficiently high and defined to make the saddle fit its proper place ; but there must be plenty of muscle as well, or the horse cannot save itself in a bad scramble with a weight upon its back. Though a round wither makes it difficult to keep the saddle in its place, if there is plenty of liberty in the shoulder it is preferable to a high, thin, knifey wither, for this means weakness, while the other means strength. Whether the saddle keeps in its place depends much upon the depth of the heart-ribs underneath, for if these are not well developed and a straight line can be drawn parallel to the ground, under the chest, the girths will ever have a tendency to work forward. When this is the case they are apt to create a sore behind the elbow, which often happens with an undeveloped four-year-old. An excellent remedy for this is to tie an old bootlace tightly round the girth, bending back the front edge, so that it no longer comes in contact with the abrasion. While the chest itself should be of such width that the fore-legs are well apart, it should terminate in an arch when viewed from the front, for if it appears square there will be a falling off in speed. If the space between the legs is too narrow, there will be a tendency to hit the opposite limb when tired, in deep ground. 74 THE HORSE Docking and Hogging. Mercifully the silly practice of docking hunters seems going out of fashion ; it was a dealer's dodge to make the quarters appear broader than they naturally are, and unthinking sportsmen tumbled into the trap, and were led to believe it looked smart. When it is urged that " it does no harm," the answer is, "Look at horses who have been docked, after a sharp gallop, and compare their appearance with those untouched with the docking knife." If only an inch or two are taken off the bone of the tail no injury may be done, but all horses with short docks will show by the excessive shaking of the stumps that the nerves of the part have been seriously affected. Now that the tails are left long another absurd practice has come into vogue amongst grooms, who must be ever meddling with Nature, which is far more clever than they are, and they pull out all the upper hairs till they make the tail look little more than a rope. A full tail has a beauty of its own, and swings with a charming swagger to the stride of a well-bred horse, but the thing that is now the cherished object of the groom has neither meaning nor beauty. Still the poor horse may be thankful that for the nonce he is not deprived of his tail, and that he has some switch left to defend himself with from the attacks of the flies, when he is allowed the luxury of a run at grass. It is a pitiful sight to watch a horse deprived of his tail tormented with flies in the heat of summer, and obliged to stamp incessantly to obtain the briefest respite from the worrying pests. There is no rest for him, and the constant concussion has a bad effect upon his legs, which is attributed by the groom to the being at grass, and not traced to the real cause, that he has been deprived of his natural weapon and means of defence. When a mare comes to fulfil the first law of nature, and goes to the stud, how much unnecessary misery is she not caused, if she has been docked short in the days of her youth. Besides its office as a defence against flies, the tail is intended to protect very delicate parts from the vicissitudes of weather, and it may easily be observed that HUNTERS 75 horses invariably turn their backs to the storm, relying on the shelter afforded by a flowing tail, down which the rain-drops harmlessly drip. How is the short-docked horse able to help himself under the same adverse circumstances ? Moreover, the tail is again a protection when the animal is lying on damp ground, and acts as a para-pluie, or a para- soleil, according to circumstances. The animal provided as Nature intended, with a bushy tail, should be much envied by the one subjected to amputation, for when flies bother a whisk or two soon settles them, and when storms threaten it has plenty of thatch to protect itself also against them. From an artistic point of view the removal of the tail betrays a sad lack of culture, since the symmetry of the animal is at once destroyed. Nature is a consummate artist, and every detail is carefully thought out. The trunk of an animal may be regarded as a table, balanced on four supports, and then when a prolongation is added to one end, to obviate a top-heavy appearance something must be designed to add to the other end to balance the whole. Thus, when the head and neck are appended, the tail is also required for symmetry's sake; and a docked horse resembles nothing so much as a teapot, with the spout intact but with the handle broken off short ! The opponents of vivisection are numerous, when most invaluable knowledge for the benefit of the human race can only be thus gained, but here are animals vivisected by the thousand for no earthly reason except a silly fashion, bringing discomfort and often misery to the victim for the remainder of its life.* * In July, 1911, before Mr. Cecil Chapman, at Tower Bridge Police Court, a person was summoned for causing two horses to be ill-treated, by docking them ; and his horsekeeper was also summoned for ill-treating them by performing the operation. He stated it was done to smarten their appearance, and to strengthen their backs. Mr. Chapman said the docking of horses was founded upon ignorance, and having become a custom it prevailed long after the ignorance had been exposed. A horse that was docked might fetch more money at a sale, but to enhance its value by inflicting pain was not justifiable. In order to mark the importance of the case, the owner would be fined £3, and £3 3s. costs, while the horsekeeper would have to pay 2s. costs. 76 THE HORSE Though the fashion of docking appears to be waning, another thoughtlesss one is still in vogae, though fortunately the animal suffers no pain, nor any permanent injury, through having its mane removed, or " hogged." While an artist, and Nature, dehght in flowing hues, it is a curious trait in so-called civilised peoples that the mass of them seem to lose all artistic instinct, so prominent amongst savages in general, and rejoice in crude colours and rigid straight lines. This accords with their notions of smart- ness, and to this everything must be subservient, whether suitable or not. Cutting all the hair off the mane, and leaving a bare straight line instead of a picturesque flowing one, just accords with their ideas, and they never stop to think whether Nature had any especial reason for decorating the upper part of the neck with long hair. It does not occur to them that this covering was intended as a thatch, to ward off the powerful rays of the sun from the vertebrae of the neck, and to keep the rain from lodging there, and much discomfort is caused to hog-maned horses from the wet soaking down to the roots of the clipped hair, instead of running harmlessly off as it would otherwise do. If moorland ponies were treated in such barbarous ways, they would soon succumb to the vicissitudes of weather they are constantly exposed to, which they now defy, owing to their shaggy manes and tails. If the broad lines Nature has laid down are inteUigently followed it would be a gain in comfort to the animals and also to the artistic eye. Tails and manes may be trimmed, without doing away with them altogether. The old rule used to be that a hunter's tail should just reach the bottom of the thigh, in a state of rest. It is then short enough to be well out of the mud, while it is long enough to look handsome, if only the upper hairs are left intact ; but a thin rope-like tail is a positive eyesore. A mane may be thinned judiciously, and curtailed in length, but plenty should be left ; and it has its uses too in helping the rider to mount, . while many a fall is saved by him, in bad scrambles, when enough mane has been left to catch hold of in an emergency. HUNTERS 77 One of the not-always-acknowledged reasons for removing the mane is to give a fictitious appearance of breeding, and so help the sale of an under-bred animal, really incapable of carrying itself to hounds, let alone the rider as well. Therein lies the crux, perhaps, of the whole matter, the vendor hoping to persuade the purchaser that the animal is better bred than is the case, by the help of a fictitious air of " quahty " through the medium of a hogged mane, for, as is frequently remarked by dealers, " hogging a horse gives it another cross of blood." This does not avail it, however, when the " Kun of many Seasons " is taking place, and the rider finds his steed dropping away hopelessly into the rear. Of air soul- vexing trials there is perhaps nothing more heart-breaking than to get a good start in a rideable country, with the hounds racing on a breast-high scent, and yet to find your steed getting further and further behind; you are overtaken and passed by one horse after another, till you are reduced to following some red coat in front, who is perhaps only following some one else who is as far before him again, and yet is not really with the hounds. As Whyte-Melville so truly sings in "Drink, Puppy, Drink," it is the "Pace that puts life into the Chase"; but what is the good of pace to you, when you are mounted on an animal that cannot gallop " as fast as you can kick your hat" ! When a would-be authority on hunter-breeding advocates as a quite sufficient cross for a hunter to be by a thoroughbred horse out of a cart-mare — or even with two or three such crosses — it is conclusive evidence that either he was never a first-flight man to hounds ; or else that he has hunted all his days in a very slow-going country. Certainly a really fast hunter may have but one known cross of thoroughbred blood, and his dam may have worked in a cart, but there must have been several good crosses of blood amongst her maternal dams, although unknown to the owner of the steed. Many a well-bred animal finds its way occasionally into a cart. Unless the animal has proved itself capable of going to the front in a good thing, it is not wise to purchase a horse about whose ancestry there is any doubt. Although pure-bred horses, 78 THE HORSE suitably made and of docile and generous disposition, make the finest hunters in any country, there is a strange anti- pathy to them on the part of many riders, and I have been told by large dealers that they dare not admit to the gene- rality of their customers that a horse they are admiring is in the Stud Book. " Almost thoroughbred, my lord — in fact as good as if he was so," sells many a horse, when if the truth were admitted it would cause the customer to turn away at once. Such is the power of prejudice ! And yet, looking back over half a century of hunting, the great gallops which remain in memory were all on horses of blue blood, or so nearly thoroughbred that they were capable of winning races on the flat or between the flags. Some Good Gallops. First-hand evidence is ever held in the highest esti- mation in our Law Courts, and therefore proofs of the value of high descent will be shown by the narration of the following runs in totally different kinds of countries, not one of which would have been seen if mounted on an animal with but one or two crosses of blood. One great gallop was seen on Redbourne, then coming five years old, who had run as a three-year-old in the Derby won by Hermit twenty months previously, and who was half-brother to Wolsey who ran a dead-heat for the Cambridgeshire with Lozenge ; while yet another brother was third for the Derby, in Lord Falmouth's colours, running as The Repentance colt. Getting rather a bad start from Goldsborough Moor, and with hounds racing at their topmost speed, Redbourne soon made up the lost ground, and in a short time we were absolutely alone with the pack. Just before the fox saved his brush for the moment, in a drain under a gateway in the road close to Scriven, I saw him in the last field not fifty yards before the leading hounds, who caught sight of their quarry before he reached the hedge, and raced him down the road till he was glad to squeeze into any refuge ; and when Sir Charles Slingsby came up, it was a great satisfaction to be able to HUNTERS 79 point out the spot where the fox had been seen to slip in. That was one of the fastest runs I ever saw, and all through deep-ploughed fields. There were plenty of well-bred horses out which got better away with the hounds, but could not live with them at that racing pace, and it needed a Derby horse to reach the pack, and live with them to the end. What would be my recollections now, if I had been mounted on the vaunted animal with one cross of blood ! I fear the memory of that run would not have remained so vivid for forty-one years. Four years later the scene was changed to Galway, in the heyday of that prince of huntsmen, the late Burton Persse of Moyode. The Meet of the far-famed Blazers was that day at Clonfert, the seat of Archdeacon Butson, and a large field was assembled there, for in addition to the usual members of the Galway Hunt there were many strangers from the Westmeath, King's County, and Ormonde Hunts, who gladly seized the opportunity of a hunt with the Blazers, when for once they met within reach. We quickly found, and it was immediately evident that there was a tearing scent, as the hounds flew over some large grass fields, girt with stone walls. I was riding Kettleholder, then seven years old, who as a three-year-old was heavily backed both for the Cambridgeshire and the Koyal Hunt Cup at Ascot. He was half-brother to Elland, who won the Ascot Vase, and his sire was Kettledrum, winner of the Derby. His dam was the famous Ellermire, one of that wonderful family bred by Admiral Harcourt from Ellerdale of whom Ellington won the Derby, Summerside won the Oaks, while Gildermire ran a dead-heat for the Oaks ; and a few years later, in 1868, the daughter of her own sister Eller, the beautiful Formosa ran a dead-heat with Moslem for the Two Thousand Guineas and further won the One Thousand, The Oaks, and also the St. Leger. Ellermire herself was a notable winner, and her most memorable race was thus described, many years after the event took place at York : — " A couple of seasons later the County Plate supplied one of the most stirring contests of its kind that I can remember. The stake was of 15 sovs. each, 5 sovs. forfeit, and the added 80 THE HORSE money but 100 sovs. The subscribers were forty-three, and the quality of eight out of the nine runners remarkable. One of them was Virago, then at the height of the reputa- tion that was fully warranted by her remarkable per- formances during the earlier part of that season of 1854. Up to the time of her appearance on Knavesmire she had, within a few months, carried off the City and Suburban and Great Metropolitan Stakes (on the same day) ; the Great Northern Handicap and the Flying Dutchman's Handicap at York ; the One Thousand Guineas ; The Goodwood Cup and the Nassau Stakes ; and the Yorkshire Oaks. Amongst her opponents for the County Plate were older horses of remarkable speed. One was Ephesus, a winner of the Earl Spencer's Plate, under 9 st. 7 lb. ; another, Orestes, the property of Baron Kothschild ; a third, Vindex, who had done smart things under the white, scarlet, and black of Sir Charles Monck ; and another, Kmg of Trumps, a good horse, but, on the whole, not a lucky one. Another competitor was the light-hearted Kingston, whose death caused the founder of the Middle Park Plate so much sorrow ; a very fast Hetman Platoff three-year-old called Hospodar, the property of Lord Zetland ; and Ellermire, by Chanticleer out of Ellerdale, a brown two-year-old filly, owned by Admiral Harcourt, and ridden by Aldcroft at 6 st. 9 lb, "Although Virago had been trained for long-distance races, she was believed to be such a wonder that few doubted her ability to win over the T.Y.C. even when opposed by ' fliers.' Odds of 2 to 1 were betted on her, next in demand being Orestes at 6 to 1. Of Virago it may be stated that she was to all intents and purposes never in the race, and after Orestes, King of Trumps, and Ephesus had looked dangerous, the two-year-old won a most stirring race from King of Trumps by a head, Ephesus being beaten half a length from the second, and finishing a head in advance of Hospodar, who only had a slight advantage over Orestes ! " Kettleholder was 16.1 in height, and a splendid fencer, and used to jump the walls in his stride as if he was steeplechasing. Though we did not get away with the very first, it did not take long before we were up with O >. I o I. HUNTERS 81 the leaders, which were reduced to two, for the hounds were running at a glorious pace. Burton Persse being on the right, and a local farmer on the left. An extremely high wall bounding a large grass field was taken by the three of us almost abreast, but while Burton Persse got over with difficulty, and the farmer, taking a lot of stones off, had a great scramble, Kettleholder took it in his stride, and raced on after the pack without hesitation. Though from that moment I lost sight of my companions I half thought I saw Burton Persse pulling off to the right, but there was no time to notice what he was doing, for the hounds were flying as fast as ever in front, and another huge wall was looming before me. If anything it was bigger than the previous one, standing well up above the horse's ears as he galloped at it, but he treated it in the same way as the other, and never touched a stone as he flew into the next field. I was new to Ireland, and to Galway, but this was the sort of thing I had expected to find, and it seemed to fit in with one's highest expectations. At the end of that field another immense wall had to be jumped, probably a continuation of the same we had just crossed, and I verily believe it was the highest of the three, but after jumping it the hounds did not carry on much further before they threw up, not far from a farmhouse. It was only then, whilst the pack was making its cast, that I had time to look round, and found I was alone, nor did any one else turn up for such a long time that I began to wonder what I should do. Then a clattering was heard, and several of the field, with Burton Persse at the head, came galloping down a lane leading to the house. Burton Persse proceeded to try to hit off the line, but the others galloped back to the last wall without drawing rein, and a sentence just reached me from their midst, " Did he jump that wall?" After satisfying themselves they returned, but the run was over, for though the line was eventually touched upon too much time had elapsed, and the fox had to be given up. I never realised that no one had been able to follow Kettleholder, and when at the meet of the King's County Harriers the next day, at Kilmaine, the Master, the late Mr. Joseph Studholme, rode up and said, 7 82 THE HORSE " So I hear you cut down all the Blazers yesterday ! " I at once replied, "Oh no, I didn't." "Oh yes, but you did though," he answered, as he turned his horse away ; and then one of my brother-oflScers came up, the Hon. Algernon Grosvenor, and exclaimed, " I would gladly give a thousand pounds to do what you did yesterday with the Blazers." But even yet I was not convinced, and thought they intended kindly, but were mistaken in what they had heard about the run. It was not indeed till I stayed with my old friend, Mr. Studholme, in 1903, just thirty-one years afterwards, whom I had not seen for twenty-two years, that I at last grasped the full significance of their remarks. When chatting over the old times, all of a sudden he remarked, " Do you remember the day when you cut down the Blazers on Kettleholder ? What a horse he must have been! " And then I learned that his feat was still remembered, and had long been a local tradition. A further tribute to the memory of that gallant horse was paid only two years ago from a most unexpected quarter. Correspondence in connection with the letting of a grouse moor renewed a friendship begun on that very day, the outcome of that exhilarating run. The late Johnny Eyre, of Eyrecourt Castle, as popular and daring a comrade as ever lived, was one of the field, and when the hounds moved on to draw the Eyrecourt coverts, he invited me to ride up to the Castle to snatch a hasty lunch, and introduced me to his sister, Miss Alice Eyre, the acknowledged belle of Galway, a favourite partner at balls of our late lamented King, then Prince of Wales. Our paths in life had lain in very different directions since those days, but the grouse moor led to a happy renewal of our old friendship, and in one of the first letters was this sentence : "Do you re- member that famous run, when you were quartered at Birr? Poor Johnny used to rave about it, and was never tired of talking about it." Kettleholder, it may be remarked, remained an inmate of my stable for seven years, and performed many a gallant deed, well worthy of his high lineage. It has been shown what a high-class thoroughbred horse HUNTERS 83 can do in a deep plough country, and what he can do in one of the most famous Irish countries ; and now let me give an instance of what one can do in a rough moorland run. On this occasion the pack hunted by Captain, Hon. Francis Johnstone, near Scarborough, met at Ayton, and found a fox almost immediately, at the very beginning of Forge Valley. From the commencement the hounds settled down to run with a breast-high scent, crossed the River Derwent, and went up the hill and over the farm of the late Mr. Thomas Darrell. I was on a young mare, Chariberta, by Charibert out of Tita, who had won twenty-two races on the flat for the late Mr. Harry Hall. At first the hounds had the best of it, for we had to follow as best we could through the wood on the side of a steep hill, then ford a rocky stream, and afterwards clamber up a steep ascent ; but when I got to the top I just saw the tail hounds jump a fence about two fields off, and therefore knew in which direction to gallop, instead of losing time in finding out where they had gone. From time to time I saw a hound here, and another there, and when after a little time we swung past the end of a plantation the whole pack was in sight, racing at top speed over the open moor. Gradually Chariberta gained upon them, and at length got up to them, the fox keeping either to a sheep track, or sometimes a cart-way, as they almost always do in a prolonged moorland run. Thus we skirted the head of the Crosscliff Valley, leaving it to our right, and held on for Saltersgate, but before reaching i^the descent the fox found his strength failing, and, coming round to the right, endeavoured to get back to the shelter of the Crosscliff woods. I now got a view of him, and soon afterwards the hounds did also, finally running into him on the moor, about a quarter of a mile above the Crosscliff shooting lodge. The distance the hounds had traversed was measured on the map to be about twelve miles, and there had scarcely been a check the whole way, though hounds do not travel so fast over heather, as they do when running over level grass fields. This was far the best moorland run I have ever seen in any country, but it needed a good thoroughbred horse to carry 84 THE HORSE its rider in touch with the pack, and it is needless to speculate on the part the half-bred animal could take in such a gallop. One more example of endurance, and this subject will be finished. This time I will select an animal not in the Stud Book, for though her dam, Kitty, an Irish-bred mare, was a winner of steeplechases, her pedigree was unknown. Kittiwake herself was by Speculum, and was sired by him the second year he was at the stud ; and besides running second in 1879 she won the Light-weight Grand Military at Punchestown the following year by several lengths, ridden by that excellent jockey, the late Captain W. B. Morris, of the 7th Hussars. She also ran third for a two-mile hunters' race at the Curragh, in a large field, ridden by myself when carrying the prohibitive weight of 13 st. 4 lbs. I possessed but two horses at that time, both of which I rode as my chargers, and Kittiwake being the stouter of the twain was usually selected for riding with the Ward Union Staghounds, then at the summit of their renown, under the guidance of the late Leonard Morrogh. It was the period when the late Empress of Austria hunted in Meath, who was ever close to the pack, being splendidly mounted, and one of the best riders that ever graced a hunting-field. At that time a famous deer tenanted the paddocks at the Ashbourne kennels, of whom it used to be said she never was taken under fifteen miles ; and on two occasions she far exceeded this distance, when I happened to have the luck to be out, and riding Kittiwake. It was in 1879, and on the first occasion we met at the " Black Bull," eleven and a half English miles from Dublin. The Enfield Doe led us very straight, and after crossing the well-known Bush Farm with its formidable fences she left Dun- shaughlin about a mile to the left, went past Gerrards- town, and was taken near Boyne View, about a mile from Navan, a distance of nineteen miles in a straight line on the map, and, of course, much further as the hounds ran. On the other occasion, on March 5th, the Enfield Doe was turned out at I^orman's Grove, ten English miles from HUNTERS 85 Dublin. After crossing the Fairyhouse race-course, the gallant deer left Katoath some two miles to the right, and then, swinging round by Tobergregan House, she passed over Garristown Hill, and leaving Bellewstown race-course to the right, was taken within two miles of Duleek. This run was slightly over fourteen miles in a straight line on the map, but was a twisting run, so that a good many more miles were traversed. In neither run was there any check to speak of, we were galloping all the way, and I assisted to take the deer on both occasions. We had twenty miles to ride home, but Kittiwake showed no symptoms of being tired, and it was only a month afterwards that she ran second at Punchestown. The next year, when she won, she had been out with the Ward Hounds sixteen times that season. The insistence, therefore, of the absolute necessity of a hunter being highly bred, if you are to be carried up to hounds on those occasions which we are always talking about, and looking out for, when the run is both fast and far, has surely received ample justification. In many countries, however, such runs are never even dreamed of, and the necessity for blood-horses is not therefore such a vital requirement, and yet occasions must arise when little of the run will be seen, owing to being thrown out, unless a horse can rapidly make up the ground that has been lost ; while few persons used to riding well-bred horses feel really at home when mounted on a low-bred animal. Although the value of blood is thus strongly urged, it must not be forgotten, when breeding hunters, that certain lines are pre-eminent for producing clever cross-country per- formers, while others are just the reverse, and their stock are seldom natural jumpers. Moreover, much depends upon the individual sire, apart from the family to which he belongs. To a few stallions is vouchsafed an especial faculty for begetting natural jumpers, as is speedily noted in their own neighbourhood, and to a certain extent is proclaimed to the world when they gain honour also between the flags. Some stallions, however, are famous hunter sires, when, for some reason or other, their stock do not contrive to show prominently amongst the winners S6 THE HORSE of steeplechases, either from want of stamina, or of speed, or perhaps both. A staUion which has won over compara- tively short distances is usually a sharp, quick horse, and is more likely to sire good hunters than a slow, plodding race-horse, which has never come to the front except over long distances. A horse that has shown winning form at both short and long distances is the animal required, but is not always to be found ; and if a choice had to be made between two animals, I would personally select the animal that had shown speed and dash rather than one which had been slow, though a stayer. Speedy horses are often big powerful animals, with excellent shoulders and free action; but their very weight causes them to tire in a race more rapidly than a light, wiry horse. If the latter has been unablt, to show speed, it may be taken for granted that the machinery does not work with the due mechanical smooth- ness which probably will be inherited by its more plebeian offspring. Some Celebeated Sires. It has been mentioned above how certain individual sires have been a conspicuous success in siring hunters, and if within reach of such it is well worth a breeder's while to pay an extra fee for the services of such an animal, whose reputation stands on a well-established footing. To mention but a few whose names have been "household words," there were Old President, and Bay President, MacOrville, and Perion, in Yorkshire, in years now long past, and Gainsborough, Lifeboat, and Gunboat, in Devon- shire. In Ireland, Sir Hercules was a mighty name, and afterwards his son, Birdcatcher, and his many descendants. The Stockwells could all jump, and so could the Melbournes, while the Beadsmans, the Flying Dutchmen, and the sons of Artillery were all constantly distinguishing themselves between the flags, and were eagerly sought for by trainers of steeplechasers. Of later years the Cedrics were re- nowned in Yorkshire, and then the Gordons, and Eed Eagles, while Ireland boasted of her Arthurs, and Victors, and then, greatest of all, the incomparable Ascetic. It is HUNTERS 87 very possible that a great part of the success of Ascetic was more due to the elements of Melbourne in his composition than to his descent from Hermit, for in their day the Touch- stones and the Newminsters were by no means remarkable as natural jumpers, while the Melbournes were especially apt pupils. In the same way Gordon, who was a successful hunter sire, was very closely related to Ascetic, the one being by Hermit out of a mare by Young Melbourne, and the other by Hermit out of Lady Alicia, by Melbourne. The Voltigeurs were not noted as cross-country experts until Speculum took up the line, but he had a near strain of Birdcatcher, and such is invaluable for animals intended for crossing a country. The great tap-root. Sir Hercules, is a fine example of hereditary aptitude. If anything had occurred to prevent his arriving at maturity, and procreat- ing his kind, the loss to Ireland alone would be quite incalculable, as well as to the world in general, for his flat-racing descendants have been as distinguished as his jumpers. There are few families which have not been strengthened by an admixture of his blood, though in direct descent the innate gift of jumping has been more strongly developed in some of his sons and their offspring than in others, notably Birdcatcher, Lifeboat, and Gunboat. The badge of the family, "the Sir Hercules crest" as it used to be known, the grey hairs at the root of the tail and scattered over the body, has latterly become more associated with Birdcatcher in the minds of the public, though it was formerly properly attributed to his sire, in whose progeny it was a very characteristic distinction. These " birth- marks" are very curious as well as interesting. The black patches in the chestnut coats of the Pantaloon tribe, and the "hammer marks" on the quarters of the bay "New- minsters," continually show themselves, generation after generation ; while the " marks of the Prophet's thumb " are generally to be found somewhere in thoroughbred horses, relics of their descent from Arabian ancestors. It is often remarked that hunters are chance-bred animals ; but is not this the result of many persons leaving the mating of their animals, and the selection of the dam, to chance, 88 THE HORSE and taking very little trouble about it? Most individuals — certainly in England — breed from a mare because she has carried them to hounds for a certain period, to their own satisfaction, and they therefore think they would like to have a foal out of her as a matter of senti- ment, and generally put off the attempt to realise their desire until the mare is well stricken in years. They probably know nothing whatever about her breeding, or whether she comes of a family which has been hunted for generations, and they have no intention of founding a line and carrying on the breed from mother to daughter. That the colt or filly which is thus bred should be a disappoint- ment, and throw back to some former undesirable ancestor, is only in accord with experience and the teaching of present-day science ; but having bred two or three foals, the owner quite believes he knows all about the question, poses as an authority, and impresses upon such as will believe him, "It is all a matter of chance, my dear fellow; why I HAVE TRIED IT MYSELF ! " In his own mind this disposes of the matter ! And, moreover, even if he does succeed in breeding a useful animal, it is more than likely he is far too indifferent a horseman to undertake the training of a high-spirited young horse himself ; while there is no groom in the stable fitted to act the rdle of a breaker, so that the young one either ends in gaining its own way, if it is masterful, or gets spoiled, and never takes its place in the hunting stable. This is not so much the case, however, in Ireland, which is one reason for the vast superiority, in general, of the Irish hunter. The dam has very frequently been well ridden to hounds, and shown her aptitude for crossing a country ; and also is no chance-bred animal, her ancestors having belonged to the same family, or been in the neighbourhood, for many generations, and the capabilities of each scion having been well known to everybody. Since hke begets like if the foal throws back to a female ancestor the type is a good one ; and though it is impossible to breed what you like whenever you wish to do so, still a start is made with the elements in your favour. A certain amount of disappointment must be HUNTERS 89 looked for, accidents will occur, and own brothers and sisters differ as much from each other in temperament and sagacity as they do in the human race. But a man must have more than his fair share of bad luck if he does not breed some good hunters, if he starts with a well-bred mare of a good, well-established strain of hunters, and is careful to select a sire whose progeny are famed for good looks and performances in the hunting-field. It is for this end that that most useful body was established, the Hunter's Improvement Society, and breeders who are un- successful have only to thank themselves if they have not availed themselves of the opportunities placed in their way of obtaining mares of authenticated pedigree. Blood must tell, whether in man or in the animal kingdom. A striking example of what can be accomplished in establishing families of hunters is shown at Birdsall, where Lord Middleton, and his father before him, has for a long series of years bred almost all the horses required for his vast hunting establish- ment, and it may safely be said that no Hunt servants any- where else are mounted on such superb hunters as those at Birdsall. Many of them are thoroughbred, and all the others have so many crosses of blood that virtually they are thoroughbred also, the pedigrees in many cases going back for seventy years. All are of the same stamp of short- legged, short-backed, but lengthy horses, with plenty of bone, very much the type of the race-horse of former days when heat-racing was still in vogue. Perhaps the hardiest family of all, the one that is especially bred and kept for the whippers-in to ride during the severe and exhausting days on the Wolds, possessed as its foundation a well-bred Welsh pony, about the middle of the last century. This breed is almost tireless, and is especially valued and treasured, and with seven or eight crosses of pure blood added to the original pony cross they are now very well bred indeed. The Wold country somewhat resembles the Downs of the Southern counties, only it is almost all plough, and the fields, though large, sometimes extending to two hundred acres, are divided by very strong growing white- thorn fences, with a large amount of "timber" of various 90 THE HORSE patterns and strengths. As the hounds fairly race up the steep hills and down the sharp declivities, whenever there is a scent, and the Meets are often very distant from the kennels, as well as the termination of the day's pro- ceedings, necessitating long weary rides each way, no low-bred horse can be expected to carry its rider with credit or even safety. The very first hill will settle its pretensions, and the rider will be wise if he cautiously avoids the first strong fence he meets, timber or otherwise, when he has been galloping a few minutes up a steep incline. The Wolds, like all hill countries, are best suited by a compactly built horse, and a leggy or long-backed animal is not so handy there, though it may be accounted a good performer in a flatter district. This should be borne in mind by the Koyal Commission when awarding premiums to stallions at the Spring Show, for an animal is often sent to a locality for which his conformation is not suitable, when he is not likely to beget the sort the district requires. The Points of a Hunter. To sum up the points of a hunter generally, suitable for almost every country, he should be 15. 3| or 16 hands in height, a long, deep-barrelled horse, with short legs, good shoulders, a well-developed wither, and a good blood head and neck, properly put on so as to bend nicely to the bit. His quarters must be strong and well let down, with a good back. His elbows must be at liberty, and not touch his ribs ; his hocks must be large ; and he should move with true hunting action, with full control of his hind-legs, and carry himself well balanced. When you are on his back his knees should show well in front. He should be free from all rush, easy to ride, and easy to guide, with plenty of sense : one that will steady himself when you require him, while you take a look at a fence, and then make a big jump at short notice, but who will gallop on and take the fence in his stride without any dwelling, if you ask him to do so. Of course pace comes first, but he must bend his knees, and get up at timber, and also creep HUNTERS 91 through an awkward place when it is necessary to do so. The dictum of the late Mr. George Lane-Fox, Master of the Bramham Moor Hounds, that no horse is a hunter till he will walk through a gap, has very much truth in it, and common sense. As a last word on the subject of hunters, mention may be made of the vast amount of money put in circulation through the chase alone, and I venture to refer to the statistics given by Mr. Orde in the first edition of his " Vade Mecum." In this carefully compiled work he estimates that 9,000 couples of foxhounds are in kennel during the hunting season, which at a low estimate require £550,000 per annum for their keep, and, in addition, 3,500 couples of harriers and beagles cost £100,000 more. Two hundred thousand hunters are kept for the purpose of hunting with these hounds, which will have cost their purchasers £12,000,000, and whose keep will amount to £8,000,000 per annum — figures which have been worked out by experts and checked by them. As the average life of a hunter is reckoned at " probably less than four seasons," a view which I thoroughly endorse, it follows that the large sum of £12,000,000 has to be expended every four years in renewing the stud ; though it is to be feared that the blighting incidence of the Budget will largely reduce these figures in the near future, through the inability of an ever- increasing number of persons to meet its demands, and to continue to follow field sports of any description. Wages for grooms and labourers are calculated as being required for 60,000 to 70,000 men, but these also will have to be largely discounted, for the same financial reasons as those given above. When the families of these men are further taken into consideration, together with the saddlers and shoeing-smiths, and the various small shop- keepers, the butchers, the bakers, the shoemakers, the grocers, and the drapers, who supply their wants, and again the many more persons who act as purveyors to these latter, it will be seen at once what an army of people are depen- dent on the welfare of the hunting ; what widespread destitution would be caused if anything interfered with its 92 THE HORSE prosperity, and what an increase there would be to the ranks of the unemployed. The writer was living in Ireland during the disastrous days of the Land League, when it was so ill-advised as to order the stoppage of the various Hunts, and he has good cause to remember the distress and ruin caused by the edict in the county of Kildare, and how the evil blighted with its withering touch such different sections of the community whose intimate dependence on hunting had never before been suspected. History has a way of repeating itself, and when there is no market for hay, straw, oats, or bran, the farmer will also realise how valuable an asset hunting is to him, which is likely to become even greater since so few horses are being reared owing to the advent of mechanical traction. Ponies. In addition to thoroughbreds and hunters, our saddle- horses comprise invaluable native breeds of ponies, so sure- footed, hardy, and sagacious, which afford an invaluable starting-point for crossing with other breeds. The one drawback to the dash of pony blood, when a considerable increase of height has been obtained in the course of gene- rations, is the difficulty of obtaining length at the same time, for the short, compact form of the pony does not accord well in appearance with the stature of a 16-hands' horse. Though the Eastern horses are ponies in height, they are true horses in that when crossed with large animals the length is there, and the progeny show no trace of the pony in this respect. In every other way ponies cannot be too much praised, and when crossed with thoroughbred blood, if the height is not unduly increased, they make the best riding-horses in the world. In general type the ponies of the North of England and Scotland are of a much more powerful build than the Welsh, Dartmoor, or Exmoor mountain ponies, or those bred in the New Forest, while the Irish ponies are rather intermediate between the others. But all seem to possess the same soundness of constitution, and do their work with 2 o^ ^ ^"30 X ^w"' u S >.co < T35 g, < i-!-a > s o ^ j='-^ u 1? W)_ :: o c2 PONIES 93 courage and generous temper. Unless crossed with the thoroughbred the Northern ponies are not adepts at galloping, their paces being the walk and the trot, but they are very sure-footed, can carry great weight, and are docile in the extreme. It is very rare to see a galloway from the dale country either kick, rear, or shy, while they can live on the roughest fare, and withstand the rigours of a very wet and very cold climate. In the neighbourhood of the old- established training stables at Middleham, Eichmond, and Penrith, the fell galloways have often some good blood in them, which is seen at once m their improved quality, and many of these can gallop in good form. It is on these limestone hills, where the native pony averages about 14.1 or 14.2, and very seldom reaches 15 hands, that the weight-carrying polo pony should be bred from this foundation stock, and kept and reared till he is three or four years old. The stock was sadly diminished during the Boer War, for from these mountains I purchased for the War Office, and sent to Africa, many hundreds of the best of the ponies ; the stock has never recovered the drain upon it, and the great increase of cycling and motoring has so restricted the demand for this class, that now compara- tively few are being bred. The great annual fair for these ponies is at Brough Hill, in Westmorland, in the autumn, and they are also sold in considerable numbers at Kirby Stephen, in the near vicinity, which fair precedes the other by a few days. The Welsh ponies are of two distinct types. Those bred in the low country do not show the quality of the mountain ponies, but are much more powerful, rather cobby in character, resembhng to a great extent the North Country galloway. It is the mountain pony that Wales is more especially famous for, small in stature so that it is difficult to find one of pure blood 13 hands in height, but full of fire, with pace, action, and good constitution. The feed- ing on their own ranges is not sufficiently good to encourage growth, but taken down to good pasturage they increase rapidly in height in succeeding generations. The Conway Show in the northern division, and the Welsh National Show, 94 THE HORSE do good work in encouraging the breeds ; whilst the Welsh Cob and Pony Stud Book is laying a foundation which should prove of very great value in the near future. The Dartmoor ponies are wonderfully improved since I first knew them nearly fifty years ago. Then they were coarse, big-headed, and cow-hocked, larger than the Exmoors, but not held of nearly so much account. Now thej'^ are quite altered in character, and I purchased numbers for South Africa, during the war, of as beautiful ponies as could be desired ; too good, indeed, for the work for which they were required. Their tors are very rugged, and covered with granite boulders, but the ponies are very sure-footed, and can carry great weights over long distances. The chief Show for them is the Brenton and Lydford Show, and the great fair for them and the Exmoors is Bampton Fair at the end of October. The Exmoor ponies are little aristocrats — though they have not improved as fast as the Dartmoors — for they were taken in hand enthusiastically by Sir Thomas Acland and Mr. Frederick Knight long years previous to any attention being paid to the improvement of the Dart- moors. Katerfelto, the equine hero of Whyte-Melville's thrilling romance, was a famous pony stallion in his day. " The Druid" tells us in his fascinating work, " Scott and Sebright," how Katerfelto's dam was stolen by gipsies, and recovered in foal with him to an Arab. He relates, too, how Mr. Kobert Smith, of Emmett's Grange, took a great hand in improving the breed of ponies, using Old Port — that famous sire of Devonshire hunters — for his pony mares, which he afterwards supplemented with other good blood. Old Port was the firstborn of the great Beeswing, through her alliance with Sir Hercules, and she, it will be remembered, was subsequently the dam of Newminster, Later the renowned Bobby was lord of the harem, " who could trace his descent through two degrees on his dam's side to Borack, who beat all the best horses, under high weights, at Madras"; and then an Arab succeeded Bobby, so there is little wonder Mr. Smith's ponies were full of quality, but they had not to rough it through the winter on PONIES 95 the moor like those of the original stock. Bobby was bred by Mr. Kamsay, of Barnton, his sire being Kobin, a son of Dr. Syntax, and a mare by Cotton, whose dam was by Borack. The method of rearing the young animals, according to " The Druid," was as follows : " Three parts of the year these mares live on the mountain land, while the farm is making beef and mutton below. . . . Their foals are care- fully wintered in paddocks with the yearlings, and if the weather is very severe the two-year-olds have hay as well. The paddocks are principally four acres in extent ; little open sheds, neatly thatched, nestle in cunning nooks, to shelter the young stock, and when its whole array is mar- shalled on to the lowlands the stud is about 120 strong." In these days of breeding extensively for polo it is well to know methods which have been proved to be successful. Sir Thomas Acland maintained his original breed un- crossed, but Mr. Frederick Knight went in for improved blood, and commenced with two sires and three mares, concerning the importation of which from Dongala (the kingdom of King Solomon's visitor, the Queen of Sheba) " The Druid " relates a most interesting anecdote. The Dongala stallions were followed by Pandarus, a 15-hand son of Whalebone, and he in turn was succeeded by Canopus, a grandson of Velocipede, but again it was found the better- bred animals could not stand the rough climate in winter. "While the experiment was in progress the colts were wintered on limed land, which enabled them to bear up pretty well against the climate. When, however, the farms were let by the present Mr. Knight, they had to go back e?i masse to the naked moor, and then it was found that even if the mares with the first cross could put up with the fare and climate, they grew far too thin to give any milk, while those of the old stock stood it well with their foals." While 12.2 hands is about the outside height at which the Dartmoor and Exmoor ponies can live all the year round on their own hills, they soon increase in height on lower ground with more generous treatment in winter ; and yet, small as they are, it is perfectly marvellous what weight they can carry for extreme distances, and many hours at a stretch. 96 THE HOESE They are better saddle-ponies, as a rule, than those bred in the New Forest, which are more sought after with a view to harness than the saddle, though good riding-ponies can be and are raised every year in the Forest and neighbourhood. The New Forest pony is of a larger size than the Dart- moor and Exmoor, and those up to 13 hands can live and do well in the open. The Burley Association is doing excellent work in untiring efforts to improve the breed, but since stallions and mares run at large there is great difficulty in controlling the choice of sires, since three hundred persons enjoy the right of pasturage, and can turn out the animal which pleases their fancy. Each bunch of mares, with its reigning stallion, has its favourite haunts, and may be found there morning and evening. The New Forest pony has many crosses of outside blood, Arab, Welsh, Highland, Exmoor, and the North Country galloway all being repre- sented in its lineage, and with its admirable distinguishing character for courage, docility, hardihood, and fine temper, it makes an excellent harness animal, and is in much request for this purpose. At the Burley Show there is a capital opportunity for any one who is desirous of seeing them at their best to note the standard these ponies are capable of attaining. All through the heaths of Dorsetshire this same type of pony is bred ; and especially in the Isle of Purbeck, beyond Wareham, some excellent ponies may be seen, earning their living where even sheep cannot thrive. The Burley and District New Forest Pony and Cattle Society was formed in 1906, and is affiliated to the Polo and Kiding Pony Society. It not only holds an annual Show at Burley on August Bank Holiday, but has also recently started a New Forest Stud Book, of which the first volume has just been published, and contains the entries of 118 stallions and 356 mares. This should prove to be a valuable scheme for improving the local breed of ponies, and should have far-reaching consequences in the near future. There is one little fellow that mention must be made of — the tiny Sheltie so beloved by children, hardly larger than a big dog. In the Shetland Isles the soil and climate make it H 0 PONIES 97 impossible to rear any animal of a large size, whether sheep, cow, or pony, but when one under 12 hands is required nothing is more suitable than a Shetland pony, with the exception it is too broad in the back to be safe for a little boy to bestride. At one time an Arab cross was tried with a few mares, and the produce was sufficiently narrow to carry a little boy, but they could not stand the rough weather, and had to be wintered elsewhere, so the experi- ment was soon abandoned. If well kept they may reach 11 hands, but the average is from 9h to lOJ hands, and their chief use is for work in the mines underground. As riding-ponies those from the sister island are, or perhaps used to be, quite super-excellent, for a mistaken zeal on the part of the Congested Districts Board induced that body to introduce hackney sires into Connemara and the wild district of mountainous Mayo, the very home of well-bred ponies. There are numerous animals of pony height in Ireland, very good in their way, but which are only undersized horses, and the true pony must be sought in the mountain regions, very possibly descendants of the early hobbies, which Strongbow and other English leaders found so difficult to cope with ; and which, in the West, were undoubtedly afterwards much improved by the Barb sires which escaped from the ships of the Spanish Armada that were wrecked on that coast. Before the advent of the above Board a Connemara pony was a name to conjure with, a well-bred, active, fast galloper, and a rival of the Arab in the way of carrying weight. Indeed, Arab blood had largely found its way into the district, and had the Board been well advised it would have worked on the lines already proved successful. Hackneys were entirely out of place, but Eastern sires, either Arabians or Barbs, would haveraised up a breed of ponies which there would surelyhave been a great demand for. The Andalusian would also have been a useful cross, for it is very hardy, with excellent legs, the bone of the cannons, and the hocks and knees, being extremely well developed. There is already a considerable amount of breeding in them, for their native land being so contiguous to Morocco, and having been so long under the 98 THE HORSE dominion of the Moors, no doubt Barb blood has continually flowed into it. The ordinary animal of the country, the common "jaca" (pronounced " haca," and evidently the ancestor of our word "hack "), is a capital riding animal, never stumbling or making a mistake. The first cross with an Arab at once puts fashion into the produce, which con- tinues for many generations, and if this cross is followed by mating with aij English thoroughbred horse the result is a very elegant and excellent riding-horse. Many very fair race-horses have been bred by following these lines. The haca has good knee action, but it also has the length which is wanting in the hackney, and therefore its descendants possess a frame suitable for riding, in contradistinction to the other. Polo Ponies. With the advent of polo, and the consequent great demand for galloping ponies up to weight, the merits of the various breeds of ponies are eagerly discussed, and their suitability considered for becoming the foundation for building up a type so much desired. It must be kept in mind that the diiferent players in a team do not necessarily require exactly the same sort of animal to do brilliant work, and that it is easier to mount some of the posts than the others. No. 1 is the hardest to find ponies for, since so many good qualities must be combined. The strokes at goal come oftenest to him, and therefore the pony must be easy to ride, or he may miss them. It must be fast or the rider cannot keep his place, and withal be handy or the opposing back will slip him, but so long as it is up to its rider's weight it does not need the bulk so essential in a pony for No. 3. A very intelligent pony is needed for No. 2, one that will follow the ball and alter its course without losing its stride, changing its legs, or propping. The ball seldom continues quite straight, especially as it loses its momentum, and as it twists to one side or the other the pony must follow smoothly in its track. Moreover, a fast-galloping pony is needed, and one from whose back a stroke can be made PONIES 99 on either side as the circumstances of the moment require. The pony for No. 3 will get most of the bumps, especially in a hustling game, and as, too, it will probably be ridden by the heaviest rider, it must be well up to weight and have plenty of substance. And yet it needs pace and a lengthy stride if it is to hold its own, though at the same time it must be very steady and clever. Probably no better No. 3 pony ever existed than the one-time celebrated Fritz, a portrait of whom and his then owner, the late Mr. John Watson, appeared in Baily's Magazine. Fritz was originally bought out of a Connemara drove by the writer, and beyond the fact that he was said to be by Kinsman, dam by Tom Steele, nothing further was known about him. He was a most powerfully built pony, and really was a weight- carrying hunter on very short legs, and being blessed with a placid and generous temper he became a celebrated polo pony under the tuition of Mr. Watson. He had one pecu- liarity— he stood much higher at the croup than at the withers, and whereas he only just passed the standard in front he could not nearly have done so behind, and yet he was not an uncomfortable pony to ride, having great length. His pace was such that he won two flat races at Baldoyle the same afternoon, ridden by the writer. No. 4 needs to be a compactly built pony, for he must be able to jump off quickly to save a goal. He needs pace, too, for he must be able to race after the ball while the other players ride off their opponents. An active, quick pony is needed here, one that can turn sharply as well as gallop. One thing is essential to all polo ponies : they must not pull or they are useless, and they must be docile and generous in their work. When the right pony has been found, and the skill to train it is not wanting, its value represents almost a small fortune. This very season Swallow has been sold for 650 gs. ; and so also have those splendid ponies of Mr. Buckmaster, Play Actor, Jack, and Lottery. Whilst the average of i*557 15s. made by Mr. Buckmaster' s stud, and of £443 2s. 6d. made by the 100 THE HORSE ponies of Mr. Freake, are convincing proofs indeed that there is money to be made at the game, by skilled players who are good judges of a pony. The problem to be solved is how to breed the animal desired. So many of the qualities required in polo ponies are inherent in Eastern sires, Arabians and Barbs, that a first cross of such blood seems a wise commencement, though the Barb is a taller animal in its own country than the Arab, and specimens occur up to 15.3. The docility of both breeds is of the highest order, and it must be borne in mind that the Arabian has been bred for centuries with one object — to carry his master in raids against his enemy, and make good his escape if his plans "gang agley." The latter supposition involves speed and activity in dodging the pursuing lance — qualities much required in playing polo. Since the Arab warrior, excepting in battle, invariably rides with only one rein, his steed must be both well trained and intelligent, to turn right or left at a critical moment, and to understand and obey its rider's wishes conveyed only by a halter and rope. The Eastern cross should be followed up with a thorough- bred one, a sire being chosen from one of the many families that always run small ; while if the produce are reared for three parts of the year on limestone hills there will be little danger of the polo limit, the bugbear to the breeder, 14.2 in height, being exceeded. The efforts of the Polo and Riding Society to fix a type must, in the course of time, exert considerable influence in assisting breeders to produce the required pony, and it already can point to the fact that two ponies bred on the lines it advocates were chosen to play for England in International matches. Tubby being out of Silvertail (No 121), and Marquis out of Lady Polo (973). Moreover, the breeding of Marquis gives point to the hope that the polo pony of the future may to a large extent be pro- duced by the mating of animals registered in their Stud Book, without recourse to assistance from the outside ; and thus a true-bred breed may be formed of thorough polo type, in a similar manner that other British breeds have been established. Just as the race-course is the all-essential PONIES 101 test of the merit of the race-horse, so may the polo-ground be looked upon as the test of the polo pony, and if polo- bred stallions can continue to beget animals of the standard of Marquis, assuredly nothing better can be desired. It may be long ere the services of thoroughbred stallions can be dispensed with, for there can, in all probability, be no great number of polo sires, since many animals are prevented from continuing their species through the early application of the surgeon's knife. Sufticient has already been accom- plished, however, to prove that polo-bred stallions can be depended upon to reproduce their like, but it should be looked upon as an axiom that the sires must be themselves tested on the polo ground, as race-horses are on the race- course, or softness, and other undesirable qualities, are eventually bound to creep in. Marquis is by Sir John Barker's celebrated sire Sandiway, and his dam, Lady Polo, by Sir Walter Gilbey's famous Rosewater, who was by Sir Joseph Hawley's great race- horse, Rosicrucian. As Sandiway was also by Eosewater, the inbreeding of Marquis was very close, and if care is not taken to guard against continued alliances of this de- scription, the eventual result will assuredly be a delicate, irritable race, such as our thoroughbred horses have so largely become. The dam of Sandiway was Cuddington, whose dam was a AVelsh pony, while Lady Polo (dam of Marquis) had Exmoor blood in her veins, so these outside strains may have had some effect in preventing any de- terioration in Marquis himself. Amongst other polo-bred stallions should be mentioned the winner of the polo-bred class at Islington, 1910, White Wings by White Mask, by Whitehall, by Hermit, whose dam was First Flight, a winner of hurdle-races, while his grandam. Oh My, won over i;2,000 in jumping prizes. White Wings is the property of the Keynsham Stud, and should beget polo ponies of the right stamp, if as good as his breeding warrants. In conclusion, it may be suggested that foundation mares for breeding fast-galloping ponies of lighter description may be found amongst the Exmoor, Dartmoor, Welsh, and 102 THE HORSE New Forest breeds ; but that for weight-carrying ponies, especially suitable for No. 3, the mares should rather be sought in the North Yorkshire and Westmorland mountains, in the vicinity of the training stables ; or else in the West of Ireland, where in Connemara, and Mayo, some of the original famous ponies may yet be found. A few words as to measuring polo ponies may perhaps be considered not out of season, since the writer has had much to do with this, having at one time officially measured the ponies for the All Ireland Polo Kace Meetings ; and, in the capacity of Purchasing Officer, during the South African War, measured nearly thirteen thousand horses. To be perfectly accurate in measuring an animal when standing still, the measuring-stick should have a spirit- level in the extended arm ; and there should be also a little extension of the arm to the back of the stick, from which a little plumb-line should depend, thus showing when the stick is absolutely perpendicular. The animal must stand upon a hard, smooth, level surface, and to obtain the true height the stick must be placed at the rear of the elbow, so that its arm rests exactly on the top of the withers. The horse's head should be pulled down a little till the ears are on a level with the withers, which gives a sharp definition to them ; but the head must be kept in a straight line, neither inclined to the right or to the left, which would otherwise tend to reduce the height. The animal should be measured immediately it comes to a standstill, for if allowed to remain standing for some moments it will begin to sink on its pasterns, and some horses will drop more than an inch in a very brief space of time. If this should be noticed the animal should be backed a step or two, and then brought up again, when a quick operator should be able to measure the exact height. To induce a horse to sink down many plans are resorted to, such as galloping it for some time ; keeping it standing many hours in a stall ; or keeping it standing with a very heavy weight on its back ; the object of all such manoeuvres being to thoroughly tire it, and so induce it to sink down the moment it is brought to a standstill, though such designs should not meet with success if the Photo by Algar Meysey-Tliompson. The Ancient Measurin(j Stone on York Race-course. PONIES 103 measurer knows his business. To shave the withers so as to remove all possible hair, and to pare the heels down closely cannot be objected to, though if this last process is carried too far the soles may get bruised, and the horse become lame, so self-interest may be relied upon to prevent this being carried to extremes. But another mode of getting round the measurer is also attempted — that of teaching the horse to stretch itself out with its legs far apart, in the style beloved of hackney grooms, when showing off their charges. This also troubled our ancestors, in the old days of Give and Take Plates ; and the old stone on which the competitors were measured on York race-course is even now in existence, in the paddock of York race-stand, and may be seen at any time by any one interested in memorials of the past. It is believed to be the only one now remaining, and provides a valuable object- lesson of the ingenuity of our forefathers in defeating the wily trainers of their time. It was in use till the early part of the last century. The stone itself is 6 ft. 4 in. long by 3 ft. 3 in. broad, and has two lines cut on it, '2 feet in length, and 5 feet distant from each other. The stone itself is perfectly flat. The length from one line to the other is the extreme distance the animal was allowed to extend its forefeet from its hind ones ; and the length of the short lines ('2 feet) was the distance allowed between the two fore-feet and hind-feet. In Give and Take Plates horses carried weight for age, and weight for inches. The usual scale was : 13 hands carried 7 stone, with 104 THE HORSE an addition of 14 oz. for each extra eighth of an inch, which works out — Each additional J inch 14 oz. extra „ „ inch 7 lbs. „ „ ,, hand 2 stone ,, so that — 13 hands carried 7 stone 14 ,, ,, 9 stone 15 ,, „ 11 stone These were the weights for aged horses, with an allow- ance of — 4 lbs. for 6-year-olds. 12 lbs. for 5-year-olds. CHAPTEE IV CAEEIAGE-HOESES Cleveland Bays. ACARRIAGE-HOKSE must look well in harness, and an important point is the position in which he stands, his fore-legs and hind-legs being well apart. Many a good hunter has slightly bent knees, or has his hind-legs bent too much under him ; but this will not do for a carriage- horse, and is fatal to making a handsome show when drawn up for parade. The neck must be long and carried well up, and be able to bend in a graceful curve ; the mane should be plentiful and fall well ; and the tail should be full and well carried. Such are the general characteristics of a handsome carriage-horse in a full-sized carriage, which requires length in the animals which draw it to match itself, for there is a want of symmetry when a pair of short horses are seen attached to a long carriage. In colour they should be bays with black legs, browns with tan muzzles, dark chestnuts, or greys. The action must be smart, knees well bent, the hocks sharply flexed, and the feet lifted high off the ground ; and the lighter the carriage the more active should be the horses, with a corresponding degree of pace. When shorter and lighter vehicles are used the fashion of the day tends towards the employment of the hackney, with its showy action, hogged mane, and short-docked tail, but in a long carriage such seem wanting in the requisite length for harmony in appearance. All harness-horses must have strong loins, quarters, and hocks, that they may be able to turn sharply, hold back a carriage down- hill, or stop it quickly when required. 105 106 THE HORSE For the big, lengthy carriage-horse the Cleveland Bay and the Yorkshire Coach-horse fulfil all requirements — the former when a massive animal is required for a heavy load, more especially for artillerj^ and transport service, and the latter when more pace is desired in a somewhat lighter vehicle. The Cleveland Bay originated in the Cleveland district of Yorkshire — celebrated for its iron- stone mines, which caused the rapid growth of the town of Middlesbrough, with its smelting furnaces and other works. The Cleveland Bays were the horses of the district, available alike for the saddle or the carriage, and doing the ordinary daily work of the farm. They crossed well with thoroughbred horses, and in that way many superior weight-carrying hunters were bred, while they often made an excellent foundation on which to raise generations of hunters, by the continued use of well-bred sires. They were a hardy breed, full of courage and endurance, and very docile. The " Yorkshire Coach-horse Stud Book," vol. i. p. 9, states : " It is claimed these Cleveland horses are a pure breed, clear of both blood and black." To be eligible for the Cleveland Bay Stud Book, the standard required is 16 hands to 16.2, and bay colour without white. The address of the Secretary is Field House, Marton, S.O., Yorkshire. Yorkshire Coach-horse. There were many persons, however, who came to the conclusion that the Cleveland Bay was too heavily built, and, with the old coach-horses in their mind, desired to form a society for breeding a higher-bred type, the outcome being the formation of the Yorkshire Coach-horse Society. It was then ordained that the first volume of their Stud Book should " contain the pedigree of stallions foaled previously to the 1st of January, 1883, such pedigrees being satis- factory to the Council," while Rule 33 ordained: "No horse shall be registered in the Stud Book unless bred in the United Kingdom"; and Rule 34: "The expression 'horse' includes stallion and mare." ■5 '■-> &■ CARRIAGE-HORSES 107 Resolutions passed by the Council at a meeting held in York, on April 17, 1888, laid down : " It is hereby agreed to admit as eligible for the Stud Book, any horse or mare showing three crosses of Coaching, or two crosses of Coaching and one of Blood, such horse or mare to be light or dark bay. No horse with direct Hackney or Carting Blood allowed to enter." The result has been the establishment of a fine type of powerful large-boned horse, with a considerable amount of breeding, since a cross of thoroughbred blood is allow- able every third generation. Though the level croup, a very characteristic point, is apt to give riding-horses rather a peacocky appearance, it is admirable for carriage work, involving a good carriage of the tail. A cross of coach- horse blood has frequently proved invaluable for light mares, reintroducing size and bone, when a resort to a thoroughbred horse might have produced a weed, useless for general purposes. Whenever a mare throws small, light foals, it is wise to try the effect of an alliance with a Yorkshire Coach-horse before turning her out of the stud altogether. In the writer's experience several good hunters have been thus bred. The first volume of the Yorkshire Coach-horse Stud Book was published in 1887, and in the Preface the remarks of various writers are stated, showing that the animal the Society had in view was more blood-like than the old Cleve- land Bay, and capable of travelling at a faster pace. Thus an extract is quoted from an article by Willoughby Wood in 1854 with evident approval : — " As to the antique ' coach-horse,' that gaunt animal with his red legs is now scarcely to be met with in his pristine purity. His legs have been shortened and turned from bay to black, his crest lowered, his head has been lessened in more directions than one ; while evident crosses of blood, which he shows, have imparted to him a decidedly more modern and aristocratic appearance. His frame is deeper, his body shorter, he can get his hind-legs under him, and as to his pace, twelve miles an hour are easier to him than eight would have been to his venerable maternal 108 THE HORSE ancestors. Such are the beneficial effects of blood, that is of a superior race judiciously engrafted on an inferior." " It cannot then be claimed for the Yorkshire Coach- horse that he is a pure-bred animal, but that on the con- trary, by the judicious crossing of large-sized good-coloured mares with stallions altogether, or nearly thoroughbred, a class of horses has been produced suited to the wants and circumstances of the times. " Certain characteristics have been carefully cultivated — by universal consent the colours should be bay or brown with black legs, mane and tail abundant but not curly, in height from 16 hands to 16 hands 2 inches, with fine head, sloping shoulders, strong loins, and lengthy quarters, high-stepping action, good sound feet, flat legs, and abundance of bone and muscle for any effort that may be required of them." Several celebrated coach-horses are mentioned in vol. i. that were sold for very high prices. " Bainbow, afterwards called King George IV., sold to Robert Thomas, of Eryholme, Darlington, when seventeen years old, for ^300. "Landmark (belonging to Mr. G. Holmes), foaled 1870, whose dam was by a thoroughbred sire, this horse was sold to the King of Bavaria for 400 guineas. "Mr. Thompson's Necromancer was the progenitor of some high-priced animals. He was the sire of Sir Edmund, sold for iJ600 to go abroad ; of Don Quixote, and another sold to Mr. Alders for i;500 ; also of Burton's Ebor, which was sold for 500 guineas. " Of the speed, power, and endurance of these horses we have recorded that Dreadnought, by Old Clothier, won a trotting match for ^£100, carrying 16 stone 16 miles, within the hour; Wonderful, a horse that obtained a high premium at Bipon Show in 1819, had a brother, Peirson's Plato, that trotted 18 miles within the hour, carrying 18 stone ; and Bevas Pullen's King William trotted a mile in 3 minutes at Selby, carrying 14 stone. "In conclusion, we can confidently recommend the Yorkshire Coach-horse as an animal that has been a source CARRIAGE-HORSES 109 of great profit to the Yorkshire breeder, an animal that needs only to be seen to be admired, to be used to be appreciated." Hackneys. Hackneys, the third great source from which the supply of carriage-horses is drawn, seem to be an endless bone of contention in the horsey world, dividing it into two camps, the one almost worshipping the animal, whilst the other will not have it at any price; the chief reason probably being that while the best of the breed are fine animals, there is a terrible tailing off amongst the inferior sort, which, as most breeders know to their sorrow, are much easier produced than the prize-winners. There is also a flashiness about the hackney, which is in fact the very essence of its being, and appeals more to the foreigner than to the average Englishman, for there is no doubt that as a race we do not like to attract notice to ourselves, and prefer to slip quietly along, attending to our own business, if possible unnoticed by the passer-by. But the hackney will not permit of our so doing. He, at any rate, means to be looked at and admired ! And so it comes to pass that the hackney is valued by the admiration- loving foreigner and many Englishmen, while others sneer at it and give it a wide berth. The hackney has been evolved out of the old roadster, and appears to have had his origin in Lincolnshire, and spread from there to Norfolk and Yorkshire ; but in the last county they have been much localised, seldom spreading far from the neighbourhood of Market Weighton, in the East Riding. The best of them have a good deal of thoroughbred blood in their veins, and the great progenitor of all, the famous Old Shales, was got by Blaze, a pure-bred son of Flying Childers, out of a strong common-bred mare in Lincolnshire. There is a beHef in the Yorkshire Wolds that the hackneys owe their high-stepping action entirely to the cross of cart-horse blood in their pedigree, and probably the compact form, wide chest, and round buttocks were derived from the same source. Crossing with pony blood produced that shortness which is one of their great characteristics, and which is so 110 THE HORSE difficult to get rid of in any breed where it is introduced, for cross as you may it is sure to assert itself generation after generation. Within the last three decades two of the most famous stallions have been Danegelt and his son Ganymede, and their stock and descendants have enriched their owners with immense sums of money. It may be of interest to trace back their pedigree, showing what famous names in the trotting world are blazoned on it, and how it is crowned at the beginning with the famous Darley Arabian, the most potent ancestor of the best race-horses, all the world over. Darley Arabian Flying Childers Blaze Old Shales Driver Fireaway (Jenkinson's) Fireaway (West's) Fireaway (Burgess's) Wildfire ... Phenomenon Performer Sir Charles Denmark ... Danegelt ... Ganymede 1702 1715 1733 1755 1765 1780 1800 1815 1827 1835 1840 1843 1862 1879 1887 Phenomenon was brought into Yorkshire by Mr. Eobert Bamsdale, of Market Weighton, and it may be said that it was through him the great improvement in the Yorkshire hack- neys took place ; while the mares who were his consorts, having a good deal of thoroughbred blood in them, produced progeny with more quality than the Norfolk trotters, which were apt to be rather coarse about the head. A great merit in the race is its soundness of legs and feet, and for showy action it cannot be surpassed. The best type should not exceed 15.2, and should be well balanced and well coupled. The Hackney Stud Book Society dates from a public meeting held at Norwich June 30, 1883, and the good work it has done since that day is amply proved every year by the animals shown at its annual Show each spring at Islington. < c 5 a: z CARRIAGE-HORSES 111 What the future has in store for the hackney is difficult to forecast in these days of mechanical traction, which is ever becoming more and more popular. The foreigners have always been the best purchasers of the breed, and may continue their custom. France especially, it is said, utilises them for breeding artillery horses, while the Argentine has consistently been a good buyer ; but a considerable trade, which used to be done with rich young business men in provincial towns, has almost entirely fallen off, for, instead of driving a smart turnout from their homes to their places of business, they now prefer a motor-car. Still, as those persons who yet continue to drive in London mostly require quality, refinement, and style, and there is no other pure breed which can compare with the hackney in its showy action, it is probable that it may yet be in demand when the Cleveland Bay and the Yorkshire Coach-horse remain but a memory, "improved " out of existence by the motor-car, or possibly the flying machine. The difference in the action of hackneys, the wrong way and the right, may be well exemplified by the following anecdote concerning two well-known stallions of their day, whose names crop up now in many a pedigree. On June 19, 1906, Mr. James Melrose, the veteran chairman of the York Race Committee, related these interesting personal reminiscences : — " I remember the hackney stallion, Prickwillow, very well ; he had high pumping action, but never got on, putting his feet down where he took them up from. I think it would be about 183*2 that his owner, C. Hart, v/ho thought a deal of him, brought him to York, and a match was made for him to trot against a local horse on Knavesmire. A crowd came to see it, and Hart rode in his shirt- sleeves, rolling them over his arms. The local horse, however, had different action, and went clean away from the start, leaving the other far behind. It was no race at all. Market Weighton was always a famous place for hackneys, and it was there I saw Fireaway trot. He had splendid action, and shot his legs out with tremendous force. He belonged to Mr. Ramsden. Flying Childers is said to have been put 112 THE HORSE to a pony mare, and that Fireaway came from that alliance." (This is not quite correct, for it was Blaze, the son of Flying Childers, who was mated with a pony, the progeny being Old Shales.) The origin of the fashion of hog-maning horses so universal with hackneys, no doubt may be traced to a desire to copy the horses figuring in antique friezes. These, however, may have owed their short manes to nature, and not to the hand of man, for Dr. Conrad Keller, professor of zoology at the Zurich Polytechnicum, has just pubhshed an account of a breed he has discovered in the Island of Majorca. These are naturally hog-maned, and closely resemble in appearance the horses depicted on ancient Greek vases. Ameeican Horses. Besides these three pure breeds already mentioned, which have arrived at the dignity of possessing a Stud Book to conserve their interests, there are horses of various nationalities employed in harness work in England, of which before the days of mechanical traction there were very large numbers indeed. Though they cannot be classed amongst " foreigners," great numbers of powerful Irish hunter-bred horses were, and are still, bought for this purpose, especially by the great London dealers and job- masters, and when Mackintosh was filling the vicinity of Limerick with beautiful black-browns, Messrs. East bought .vast numbers of them, many of which seemed much too good to pass their lives in harness. American horses, too, have been greatly valued, for the great attention which has been paid to the perfecting of the trotter has had an immense influence on the general horse- stock of the country, besides the direct infusion of our own race-horses, originally imported from England. The old black harness horse of Canada, too, whatever his real origin, was an animal of transcendant merit, honest, hard-working, hardy, and a fast trotter, and the American trotters and pacers owe much to the blood of the famous old Canadian black horse. Pilot. The blood of which he was the most -M CARRIAGE-HORSES 113 famous representative contained elements of the greatest value for w^ork-horses of every description. In a letter, which must carry great weight, Mr. Alfred AVithers, the head of the world-renowned establishments in Oxford Street and Edgware Eoad, has most kindly summed up the results of his long experience of the working qualities of the different classes of harness-horses, of which tens of thousands have passed through his hands : — "There are two breeds of horses which, to my mind, absolutely eclipse the Cleveland, Yorkshire Coach-horses and hackneys, for carriage purposes. These are, firstly, the Irish horses of the 14 to 15 stone hunter type, with too much knee action in the trot to gallop fast enough for hunting ; and, secondly, the American carriage-horses. " Of the first class, for years and years, up to the time they gave up business, Messrs. East bought, and at the present time Messrs. Wimbush buy, three-year-old horses of this class in Ireland in large numbers ; and we ourselves take every opportunity of buying such horses at any age we can get them, over four years old. The great charm of them, to my thinking, is that the natural courage of the breed enables them to keep up their knee action, and general stylish appearance when moving, so long after the time of life when the other breeds mentioned have lost those quali- ties. I believe their wearing qualities to be infinitely superior to either of them. "With regard to the American carriage-horses, we have been very large importers of this class, having had two buyers in the States some years ago for a considerable period, besides which we have taken every opportunity of buying good American horses brought over to this country. I unhesitatingly say, from my experience, they are the best type of carriage-horse I have ever known, and I attribute this result very much to their having been bred for genera- tions for road work, to draw weight, and for speed. The best American carriage-horses have a large dash of the best trotting blood in their veins, and this it is that gives them the courage and speed that is wanting in the Cleveland and hackney, and makes them so valuable for harness. 9 114 THE HORSE " My opinion of this class of horse has been borne out in many ways. I distinctly remember talking to Mons. Arthur Marx, who died about ten years ago (and who was the lead- ing dealer in Paris for about twenty-five to thirty years, dealing exclusively in the highest class of carriage-horses), and he confirmed my opmion, and told me at that time the best carriage-horses in Paris were American horses ; moreover, he stated that the best pair of carriage-horses he had ever known were a pair of American horses in the English Ambassador's stables in Paris. " Another great reason for the superiority of the American horses is the fact that until recent years Clydesdale and Cart blood was hardly known in the States, or Canada, and farmers did all their farm work with horses of the carriage- horse type. I remember buying in Canada twenty-five years ago a pair of splendid carriage-horses, black-brown, 16 hands, full of courage, good action, five and six years old, own brothers. I bought them from a farmer who bred them, and had worked them regularly on his farm ever since they were old enough to pull a load. " Of course a great deal of rubbish has been imported to this country, but I have had such a number of good American horses in my business, and compared them with English, French, German, Russian, Dutch, and Hungarian horses for this particular purpose that I can speak with confidence in their favour. " The one drawback to Irish carriage-horses is that they are occasionally inclined to canter in harness. The American horses, on the other hand, have been bred for generations to trot, and to trot only with a load, and they very seldom fail in this respect." It is "money" which invariably "speaks," and the conclusions of a veteran professional at any game are worth all the ideas of enthusiastic amateurs put together. Mr. Withers draws his conclusions from actual experience of what answers, and has no fad to bias him in favour of one breed over another, except for what pays him the best. His testimony, therefore, in praise of Irish and American horses for high-class carriage work cannot be over- < X 7 « CARRIAGE-HORSES 115 estimated ; whilst he points out a way for recruiting our harness horses when our home stock fails, which at present there seems every chance of it speedily doing. The small- holder, so much in favour in certain quarters at the present time, will be of no assistance in rearing high-class stock of any description. CHAPTEK V CAET-HORSES rj^HE sheet-anchor of a farmer in breeding horses is -L undoubtedly the cart-colt, whether it be Shire, or Clydesdale, or Suffolk Punch. In our cities and towns mechanical traction may entirely supersede the horse, but on a farm it can never altogether do so, for there must ever be various jobs in the country which can only be performed by the help of an animal — and at least it is not likely that our farmers will revert to using oxen for draught. The ponderous dray-horse will probably disappear, since heavy vans and brewers' drays are now depending chiefly upon motor traction ; though there may still be a small demand for huge animals, as they are almost indispensable for shunters' work at large railway stations, which they so efficiently perform ; but apart from that there seems little opening for their services. The cart-horse of the future seems likely to be a quick, active animal, that can walk at a good pace, and a pair of which can plough an acre of strong land in a day. Though the cart-horse and the blood-horse have un- doubtedly evolved from the same little animal of the Lower Eocene Period, the Hyracotherium, who possessed four toes on each fore-foot, and three on each hind-foot, the cleavage of their ways must have taken place ages ago, and certain characteristic differences have long existed between them. An essential one is the hollow depression in front of the orbit, invariably present in Eastern horses and their descendants for many generations, but ever absent from the coarse breeds of Northern Europe with but one exception to be presently mentioned. Large, too, as the bone of the 116 o CH ?i z S^i -1 s g-i < <:h-!£ 1 — ij^ sp u w C S Ml X ^ S--5 H (/I 0 " ■7 n. ii; CART-HORSES 117 cart-horse appears to be in comparison with that of the thoroughbred, it is not entirely in favour of the former, for not only is the grain far more porous, but the cavity inside for containing the marrow is also disproportionately large, and therefore the actual bone it not so massive as at first sight it appears to be. To a great extent the power of a cart-horse depends upon his weight, especially in a dead pull ; and he requires considerable courage to continue to pull again and again at an inert mass until it moves, and then to draw it, perhaps for miles. Horses used in country work for drawing brewers' drays and such-like heavy vehicles, travel from twenty-five to thirty miles a day, the weight in a four-wheel van being from 6 to 6^ tons, which is a full load for three or sometimes four horses. Cart-horses require docile tempers, and a placid, though generous disposition ; and must also possess the best of constitutions to withstand the changes of our variable climate. In breeding them a saving point in their favour is the early age at which they can begin to do something towards earning their keep ; while the dam also can work through almost the whole period of gestation, and again very shortly after the foal is born, so that the total cost is small compared with breeding well-bred horses. A young cart-horse can do light jobs when it is two years old without detriment to its growth or general well-being, whilst the well-bred hunting colt is of little use until it is at least four years old. The Lincolnshire Black Cart-horse. There was a famous breed of black cart-horses in Lincoln- shire which existed as a class till the middle of the last century, which are traced to the times when the Dutch came over and drained the Eastern fens during the reign of William III., bringing their horses over with them. They spread into Yorkshire, where occasional specimens still crop up, throwing back to their Dutch ancestors. They are set much store by, being invariably active hard workers, and in their lean, game-looking heads they show evidence of superior blood m their ancestral pedigree. 118 THE HORSE The bane of the cart-horse a few years ago was its tendency to put out ring-bones and side-bones, and also spavins ; but there has been an extraordinary change for the better since the estabHshment of the great Shows and the enroUing of dams and sires in the respective Stud Books. The rigid rules, and careful administration of them, have gone far towards eliminating these serious ailments, and have certainly succeeded in establishing a much sounder race of horses in every breed ; and the aims of the Shire Horse Society in 1877 " to improve the old English breed of cart-horses " have certainly been fulfilled with regard to their especial proteges. The Shike Horse. A Shire horse must be massive, with strength in the back and thighs, and deep in the ribs, with plenty of long, straight, silky hair on the legs, well covering the fetlocks, while a rosette of hair at the knee is much prized. The feet themselves should be big and solid, with sloping pasterns, and good razor-shaped bone. The body should be squarely built, with muscular arms and thighs ; and there should be force as well as fire in the movements. A sluggish goer hanging back from his bridle is one to be avoided for work or for showing. Above all he must walk well, with plenty of liberty, and quite straight in his action, not rolling in his gait or turning out his hocks. In height he should be about 17 hands ; and in colour dark grey, brown, bay, black, and chestnut-black. The Shire Horse is no doubt the descendant of the old English Great Horse used by the knights when heavy armour was worn ; and so heavy was the knight and his accoutrements that the warrior seems only to have mounted his war-horse when actually required for the tournament or the battle-field. At other times the knight was mounted on a palfrey, whilst a squire led the Great Horse carrying the armour ; and the necessity for this is easily understood when it is considered that the knight and his armour together weighed about 32 stone ! CART-HORSES 119 It is curious to reflect that there is an aflinity between the massive Bhire and the elegant Eastern horse in that the distinct depression in front of the eye-sockets, for the face- gland, appears in each. It is, however, accounted for by remembering that the Great Horse at one time was crossed with Neapolitan and Flanders horses, who had Barb blood in their veins, and to this no doubt the Shires owe this unique distinction amongst coarse-bred horses. The Shire Horse Society has this year (1911) issued from its office, ll2, Hanover Square, London, the thirty-second volume of its Stud Book, which shows 4,676 new entries, comprising 1,090 stallions and 3,586 mares — surely con- clusive evidence of its vitality and practical use. And a good sign is that many of the entries are made by tenant farmers ; though future prospects under recent legislation may well give rise to anxiety, with the break-up of so many great estates, and the consequent withdrawal of the help and assistance of the hereditary landlords, which have been so invaluable in the times that have passed. The total number of registered stallions is now 28,954, and of mares 65,530, a most gratifying record, testifying to the wisdom of the original founders of the Society, and the ability of those who have looked after its interests since its formation. Clydesdales. Clydesdales, which emanate from the valley of the Clyde in Lanarkshire in Scotland, represent a lighter type of cart- horse than the massive Shire, and should be altogether more active in appearance, being able to trot when occasion requires. It is partly from a cross between blood-horses and mares of the stamp of Clydesdales that the animal is produced which is in request for drawing that form of torture to the nerves of the town-dweller, the tradesman's spring-lorry, which, when empty and drawn at a trot, seems to shake loose every tooth in the head of the unfortunate passer-by. The Clydesdale, however, is not answerable for this, only the driver, who forgets that oil and cart grease are cheap, that leather washers are easily obtained, and that 120 THE HORSE the rattle he makes and seems to enjoy is very trying to other folk. The origin of the Clydesdales is ascribed to the action of the Duke of Hamilton in crossing six Dutch stallions imported by him on the draught mares of the country, more especially those belonging to John Paterson, of Lochy Lock, whose stock, however, died out about thirty- five years ago. These mares were either black or brown, and had a distinguishing patch of white hair on the belly. The foundation appears very similar to that of the famous black horses of Lincolnshire, and there must have been great merit in these Dutch cart-horses to have produced two such excellent types. There is, however, another possible source from which they inherit good breeding, similarly to the ponies of the Isle of Rum, and those of Connemara, and Mayo, in Ireland ; in that many of the ships of the Spanish Armada were wrecked within reach of the valley of the Clyde. The Spaniards had intended not only to conquer but to colonise the British Isles, and therefore brought with them their families, and also large quantities of farming stock, including stallions. All along the West Coasts of Scotland and Ireland, the unfortunate vessels were wrecked, but many of those on board were saved besides their live stock, and colonies of Spaniards were thus formed. They remained where they were, and traces of them may be seen in the native population at the present day ; and in a similar way the influence of their well-bred stallions still remains amongst the horses and ponies of the districts where they settled. The Clydesdale stallions have been much sought after by farmers' clubs in England, even as far as Cornwall ; while the Messrs. Morris, with their wonderful team of six bay Clydesdales, at the Olympia Show of 1909, caused general admiration, and proved to what a pitch of per- fection it was possible to bring the breed. It is not only in the British Isles that the merits of the Clydesdales are duly appreciated, for in all our great corn- growing colonies they are much valued, and in Canada, CART-HORSES 121 Australia, and New Zealand they are largely engaged in agricultural operations. They have been exported to South Africa and largely into the Argentine. Everywhere they prove themselves the farmer's friend, and their world-wide reputation has been honestly earned. The Clydesdale Horse Society was founded in 1877. The best height is fixed at 16.2 to 17 hands. In colour they should be dark brown with dappling, or black. Mares may be grey, but not stallions. White on the legs is admissible, with plenty of silky feather from the very hocks, and knees, while " Ratch " on the face is held to be a sign of purity of blood. Suffolk Punch. A breed with an extraordinary reputation in its own district, always admired whenever seen, is the Suffolk Punch, with its beautiful, shining chestnut coat. It is an excellent walker, with a smart, quick step, and can trot in a railway van, moving well up to seven or eight miles an hour. It is one of our oldest established breeds, and that great authority on the agriculture of his day, Arthur Young, speaks of it as " an old breed," and he himself was born in 1741. Since that time they have been continually improved in general form, ungainly or weak points have l)een bred out, and soundness of wind and limb have been established ; but their chief attribute, and most valuable distinction, gameness in the collar, was as fully developed then as it is now, even if it still exists in its former pre-eminence. The test of the sand-bag was peculiar to Suffolk and was a great test of merit in the old breed, whatever might be thought now of the hardship inflicted on the willing teams. Sir Thomas Gery CuUum, in a note to the second edition of his brother's work, "The History and Antiquities of Flamstead and Hardwick, in the County of Suffolk," by the Eev. Sir John Cullum, Bart., F.R.S., F.S.A., explains the conditions of the test : — " The trial is made with a waggon loaded with sand, the 122 THE HORSE wheels sunk a little in the ground with blocks of wood laid before them to increase the difficulty. The first efforts are made with the reins fastened as usual to the collars, but the animals cannot, when so confined, put out their full strength ; the reins are therefore afterwards thrown loose on their necks, when they can exert their utmost powers, which they usually do by falling on their knees and drawing in that attitude. That they may not break their knees by this operation, the area on which they draw is strewn with soft sand." The Suffolk Mercury, June 22, 1724, thus advertises the first match that took place : — " On Thursday, July 9, 1724, there will be a drawing at Ixworth Pickarel, for a piece of plate of 45s. value ; and they that will bring five horses or mares may put in for it : and they that draw twenty the best and fairest pulls with their reins up, and then, they that can carry the greatest weight over the block with fewest lifts, and fewest pulls, shall have the said plate ; by such judges as the masters of the teams shall choose. You are to meet at twelve o'clock, and put in your names (or else be debarred from drawing for it), and subscribe half a crown apiece to be paid to the second best team." Such contests, fortunately for humanity's sake, have long died out, but that they ever should have been common as trials of strength is a convincing proof of the gameness of the breed. The first volume of the Suffolk Stud Book, p. 41, quotes an advertisement of a drawing-match in 17(36, thirty-eight years after the one mentioned at Ixworth Pickarel, and many are known to have taken place between these dates. "Harleston, Norfolk. This is to give notice, that on the 18th of this instant March, there will be a drawing for stallions at the house of John Hamblem, called the Magpie, for a silver cup value five guineas : no more than seven to enter, and not less than five. Each horse to draw single, to raise the most weight. The best of twenty pulls, and for every blank, to have a bushel of sand laid on the waggon." CART-HORSES 123 Youatt adds his testimony to the docile temper of the Suffolks :— " Many a good draught horse knows well what he can effect ; and after he has attempted it and failed, no torture of the whip can induce him to strain his powers beyond their natural extent. The Suffolk, however, would tug at a dead pull till he dropped. It was beautiful to see a team of true Suffolks, at a signal from the driver, and without whip, down on their knees in a moment and drag everything before them. Brutal wagers were frequently laid as to their power in this respect, and many a good team was injured and ruined. The immense power of the Suffolk is accounted for by the low position of the shoulder, which enables him to throw so much of his weight into the collar." The original type, as given in the first volume of the Stud Book, p. 42, was " rather small, barely 16 hands ; low in the forehand ; upright on the shoulder ; ' sorrel ' or chestnut, with the occasional flaxen mane and tail ; short- legged ; not over-handsome, but with the deep ribs, hardy constitution, and the aptitude to ' draw ' well, which was the pride of the Suffolk farmer at that time." While Suckling, in his work on the " History and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk," describes them as " active in their paces, and on the lighter lands of the county will draw a plough at the rate of three miles an hour." The first volume of the Stud Book, quoting from the Live Stock Journal Almanac for 1878 with much approval, states : — " The deep back ribs, short legs, and close joints are rarely absent in an animal of the Suffolk breed good enough to go to London. The evenly turned quarters, the round barrel, and good chest mark the county of his birth ; " and this description holds as good to-day as at the period when it was written. The Stud Book then proceeds to give the points of the breed, which are so clearly stated, that I cannot do better than repeat what is there laid down. " So far as a leading feature in his character, colour stands first. . . . The recognised colour is chestnut. Bays 124 THE HORSE were very prevalent some years ago, but the presence of that colour can, in nearly every case, be traced to the introduction of extraneous blood. Of the chestnut there are seven shades . . . the dark, at times approaching a brown-black, mahogany, or liver colour ; the dull dark chestnut ; the light mealy chestnut ; the red ; the golden ; the lemon; and the bright chestnut. The most popular, the most common, and the most standing colour is the last named. The bright chestnut is a lively shade, with a little gradation of lighter colour at the flanks and at the extremities — but not much. It is in most cases attended with a star on the forehead, or thin 'reach,' 'blaze,' or ' shim ' down the face. The flaxen mane and tail pre- valent 100 years ago, and occasionally found at the present day, are usually seen on the bright chestnut. This shade is also not unfrequently shot with white or silver hairs, hereditarily distinctive of certain strains. " The golden is a beautiful colour, not many removes from the bright chestnut, but is not unfrequently faced up with a white heel behind. The lemon is a very light golden shade, known sometimes as the ' yellow ' chestnut. "The red chestnut is a very popular colour; and a red chestnut is almost sure to be a whole-coloured horse. There is no variation of shade in it, not even at the flanks, quarters, or extremities. It is said to come of a taint of bay origin, especially the lighter variety — the cherry red. " The light mealy chestnut is condemned by all ; it is indicative of a weak constitution, soft legs, and a slow phlegmatic temperament. Commencing with a dull chest- nut body, the flanks and under-line are a mottled ash colour, gradually shading off to a dirty white at the extremities, which are usually covered with soft hair of the same hue. " The dark chestnut is a favourite with some breeders, but is mostly a changing colour, varying with the season of the year, from almost a black to a dark cherry red. ... It is said to be a hardy colour, but there can be no doubt that a first-class mare is considerably depreciated in value, if a dark instead of a bright or golden chestnut. The dull- Z c^ (^ O ."^ 4) CO i-pH = Pm"^ o ^ -£-'5. fl i CART-HORSES 125 dark chestnut is only one remove above the light mealy chestnut, and is held in little better repute. . . . Sorrel was the name by which the chestnut was known many years ago. Black, white, grey, or dun is never mentioned in connection with the colour of a Suffolk horse. "Next to colour comes that indescribable, but equally unmistakable, element in his composition, which is known by the term of * quality.' ... It is not necessary that a horse of a great deal of quality should be totally free from hair on his legs ; it has no connection with a light bone — some of the heaviest-boned Suffolks show the most quality ; ... it would perhaps be best described as a thin skin, with soft hair, and tightly fitted, and especially over the bones and joints of the legs. ... As regards the head of a Suffolk horse, no doubt many of the most valuable specimens of the breed have had the head described by Mr. Garrett (' Head rather large, thick through the gullet — not coarse. Eyes small, not prominent ; ears small and pointing towards each other at the tips'), and Mr. Wilton ('Not too hand- some, broad forehead, with a little thickness in the throat- band ; ear not large, but should look small on a masculine head ; eyes fairly prominent ; nostril rather thick, but open ; chaps deep and a little heavy in appearance ') ; and as such, these small ears and non-prominent eyes and thick throat-band have been associated with the breed, not only in years gone by, but in more recent times. Manchester Boxer 298, French's Captain 541, some more of the sons of Catlin's Duke 296, and still more of the progeny of Crisp's Cupbearer 416, had more or less of these dis- tinguishing points. . . . The big bold head, long and thin — perhaps the best of all, and as indicative of pure blood as any yet noticed — may be traced in the descendants of Edward's Briton 490. Liverpool Captain 422, Crisp's old high-necked horse 408, and Cottingham's Captain 376 had such heads, and the mares left by them were nmch in the same character. " An arched crest, with a fine silky mane, no doubt belongs to the Suffolk horse. Some prefer a more muscular neck, while others are inclined to a liner crest, all agreeing that 126 THE HORSE it should be deep in the collar, tapering gracefully towards the setting on of the head. The straight ewe neck is rarely seen in a Suffolk horse, and is always rejected as a serious detriment. The enormously heavy neck and crest runs in certain families . . . and is mostly accompanied by a hollow back. " The sons of Catlin's Duke 296 were all short in the neck — a formation which is mostly accompanied by a hardy constitution. It was so in this case. The Newcastle Cap- tains 89 were very thin in the crest, had beautiful hair, but were a little deficient in muscle. . . . " Whatever the shoulders of the Suffolk horse might have been in years gone by, there can be little doubt that a mus- cular shoulder, well thrown back at the top, prevails in the present race, and much of the comely appearance of the best Suffolks now in existence is the result of such a forma- tion. The smart step came in with the oblique shoulder, but the power of lifting, the facility for going from end to end on the plough in a stiff' clay twenty-acre field was not increased by the ' improved ' fore-end. " The well-rounded rib, deep all the way from shoulder to flank, is a decided point in the build of a Suffolk horse. The inordinately deep mid-rib and light girth behind the shoulder, which in years past disfigured the breed, has been gradually worked out, and a better, rounder middle sub- stituted. The deep carcase is, or should be, a sine qua non with a Suffolk horse. The long hours without food, which seems a rooted practice all over the county, render a roomy carcase a positive necessity. A Clydesdale or Shire-bred with a hght middle and short rib may do in London, where the nose-bag is always at hand, but the long day and the short rations, from 6.30 to 3 o'clock on the plough, in Suffolk, would soon reduce a horse of this form to a skeleton. The graceful outline of the back, loin, and hindquarter is rarely absent in a Suffolk horse. . . . " The bone of the Suffolk horse is not large; it is more of the texture of the blood-horse, and does not require to be heavy to the eye. K girth of 10^ inches below the knee is ample for any Suffolk horse, nor is his value increased by CART-HORSES 127 a larger bone. The height of a Suffolk horse varies from 15f to 17 hands, but 16^ is all that a good one ought to be. . . . " The girth of a Suffolk horse behind the shoulders should be about 8 feet. Two inches short of this would not be looked upon as a light fore-rib, but anything further that way would begin to attract notice. ... In temper they are docile in the extreme. . . . For the first three-and- twenty years of the Koyal Society existence the prize was offered for ' the best horse for agricultural purposes,' and the various breeds took their chances among specimens representing every variety (1839-1861). Of these twenty- three first prizes fourteen went to Suffolk horses, and the remaining nine represented the united success of all the other breeds which competed. ... In addition to these, more than half the second prizes awarded during the same period went to Suffolk horses." It should be added this breed weighs well for its height, ranging from 1,900 lbs. to 2,240 lbs. (1 ton). Since that time the Society has thought it wiser to separate the breeds, and prizes have been given for the best Shire, Clydesdale, &c., most certainly a preferable plan. But in all that constitutes a farmer's horse, a hardy, strong-constitutioned, docile, staunch, active animal, a Suffolk horse is very bad to beat, be the others what they may. As a Suffolk breeder the reputation of Sir Cuthbert Quilter is now world-wide, and Mr. Smith of Wood- bridge, Mr. Clark of Sudbourne, and Mr. Arthur Pratt of Morston Hall, Trimley, stand forth as champions of the breed at the present day ; amongst their staunch friends of the past the late Duke of Hamilton, the late Earl of Stradroke, and the late Sir Edward Kerrison did a great deal for the Suffolks, but without the arduous labour of Mr. Hermon Biddell in compiling the Stud Book of the Society, which brought him such renown, the history of the Suffolk horse might still be incomplete, and to his researches much of the present fame and success of the breed is due. CHAPTER VI ORIGIN OF AMERICAN TROTTING HORSES rriHE hold that trotting horses have over the inhabitants J- of America is difficult for Europeans to understand. Although the great founders of this race came from the Old World, the populace there has rarely been enthusiastic about the trotter, and his especial excellence is due to the genius of the Americans themselves. It is, moreover, within the last forty years or so that the great improvement in the breed has taken place, for in the year 1872 only 96 horses made a public record of a mile in '2.80 or better, though live years afterwards, in 1877, 284 horses attained the same distinction, and now many thousands of trotters and pacers have reached the recognised standard of merit. In his interesting work, "American Roadsters and Trotting Horses," Mr. H. T. Helm lays down as an axiom in breeding trotting horses : " The sire should have the trotting qualities desired in high degree, and they should be derived from both inheritance and instruction. The dam, if possessed of endurance and pluck, and enough of what we call blood, may be lacking in the inherited trotting quality, yet be capable of producing a trotter of the highest excellence." He then proceeds to illustrate his argument by citing the example of Lady Thorn, who was by Mambrino Chief, a natural trotter, but who never raced in public, while her dam was by Cano, a thorough- bred race-horse, and her grandam by Sir William, also a thoroughbred race-horse. Lady Thorn was bred in 1856. Her greatness as a trotter was shown by the illustrious competitors she beat, amongst others being the famous Dexter (2.174), Mountain Boy, Goldsmith Maid (2.14), 128 ORIGIN OF AMERICAN TROTTING HORSES 129 American Girl (2.16J), Lucy, and George Palmer. Her career ended through falling when being boxed at a rail- way station, when she got a hip down through striking an iron rail with it, the accident happening in 1870, and she then retired to the stud with a record of 2.18J. Undoubtedly it was an event of the greatest national importance when the grey thoroughbred horse Messenger first trod American soil, for most of the fastest trotters of to-day inherit his blood. He was bred at Newmarket in England by John Pratt, Esq., in 1780, and stood 15.3 high. Mr. Helm devotes some pages of his book to endeavouring to prove a supposition that Sampson, the great grand-sire of Messenger, was not by Blaze, as stated in the English Stud Book, but by a coarse-bred horse, and that it was due to this parentage that Messenger owed his phenomenal powers of transmitting trotting qualities. The chief arguments of Mr. Helm are that Sampson was black in colour, very coarse in appearance, with great strength, and he further states : " All persons acquainted with the character of the English race-horses descended from the pure Arab know that they possessed no such instincts {i.e., trotting). What they did not possess they could not transmit." Now in this reason- ing he is certainly in error, for many thoroughbred horses are extremely fast trotters when put to that gait ; fre- quently also the same may be said of Arabians at the present day, and Barb horses, some of which breed appear in the pedigree of Mambrino, the sire of Messenger. Again, though black is a rare colour amongst pure-bred Arabians, this does not apply to Barb horses, wherefore Sampson may have inherited his colour from his African ancestors. Some strains of Barbs, too, show great strength, especially the Shawya tribe, which are built after the fashion of the Fell galloways of the North of England, though at the same time they are possessed of great speed. Many Barb horses reach 15.3 in height and are frequently fast trotters, though the Moors themselves prefer the pacing gait, and take much pains to develop this by careful training. Mr. Walter Winans has pointed out an interesting fact in con- 10 130 THE HORSE nection with this: "If you look at the Egyptian wall sculpture sand paintings you will notice that the Egyptian chariot horses are represented either galloping or pacing, never trotting." An extremely fast trotter was Hadramaut, a pure Arabian, bred by Mr. Wilfrid Scawen Blunt at Crabbet Park in 1880, and it was claimed for him he could trot sixteen miles within the hour in an ordinary dog-cart when the property of Mr. H. Stephens, of Cholderton, near Salisbury. More- over he won the Oriental Stakes on the flat, at Sandown Park in 1884, for his then owner Major K. F. Meysey- Thompson, carrying the top- weight 10 st. 4 lbs., and though only a four-year-old he gave weight away to aged horses. He was ridden by Tom Cannon, and was by Kars, a Seglawi Jedran, out of Hagar, a Kehilet Ajuz, a cele- brated mare in the desert of Arabia, very powerful, and 15 hands in height. Mail Train, who came from Smyrna, was another fast trotter, also the property of the writer. Amongst many very fast trotting thoroughbreds may be mentioned Camaltha, by Camballo out of Violet by Janus, out of Kick-up-the-Dust, winner of eight races on the fiat, yet who never broke from her trot when used as a hack. In the course of one winter the writer often had occasion to visit a relative who had met with an accident and lived fourteen miles away. Although there were some streets to traverse, when perforce the mare was obliged somewhat to restrain her ardour, also three, or sometimes four, gates to open, besides being compelled to walk for a short distance once or twice during the journey for the sake of resting, the longest time ever taken between the two houses was one hour and ten minutes. The mare used never to break from her trot, and such was her courage that it was impossible to make her go slower than her top speed. After she had walked about a hundred yards she would start off again at her best pace, though the rider would have pre- ferred to take things easier. Almost if not quite as fast a trotter was Chariberta, by Charibert out of Tita, the latter the winner of twenty-two races on the flat. Again, another very fast trotter was Lady Bo-Peep, by Hagioscope out of ORIGIN OF AMERICAN TROTTING HORSES 131 the sister to Syrian, Baroness, by Mentmore. Numbers of other examples could easily be given, but enough has been said to show that Mr. Helm was mistaken in thinking English race-horses and pure-bred Arabians never possess the gift of trotting, for on the contrary many are very fast trotters indeed, and consequently are quite likely to transmit their gifts to their descendants. When, therefore, Mr. Helm mentions " that Lord Gros- venor, the owner of the horse, offered to match Mambrino to trot fourteen miles in an hour for one thousand guineas," and attributes his trotting powers to his being " one degree closer to the coach-horse," he is scarcely treading on sure ground. Other points that Mr. Helm relies on for proving coarse blood in Sampson are that he was 15.2 at a period when the thoroughbred horse rarely reached 15 hands, and also that his withers were round and flat ; but this last charac- teristic is by no means uncommon amongst pure-bred Arabians, and both Hadramaut and Mail Train, mentioned above, were remarkably round in their withers, though they had great liberty of action and won many races. Lackland also, bred at Middle Park by Mr. T. Blenkiron, by King John out of Gaiety by Touchstone, the dam of Gamester, winner of the St. Leger, a winner of fourteen races on the flat, was as round in his withers as any mountain galloway, so this certainly cannot be relied upon as a certain proof of coarse breeding. As for the unusual height, Hagar, already mentioned, a desert-born Arabian mare, was 15 hands, and of her progeny, bred at Crabbet Park, Hadramaut grew to 15.1 in the first generation reared in England. As Sampson's ancestors had been brought up in this country for some generations, the good keep may easily have sufficed to grow a horse of Sampson's size. He was, moreover, a racehorse of great excellence, having won all his races of four miles and under, except his last race, when he won his first heat. Surely therefore the convenient Scotch verdict of "not proven" may be applied to Mr. Helm's arguments as to the parentage of Sampson's sire. i:52 THE HORSE The Points of a Trotteb. Mr. Helm's work is so full of information, especially in regard to the characteristics of the early trotting stock, that when a seeming error is noticed it is well to draw attention to it, lest silence should be deemed to give consent. His description of the conformation of the trotter as being diametrically opposed to that of the race-horse may perhaps be accepted in America, but is certainly not so in England. He states : " Any one who has closely studied the crossing of the trotter with the blood of Diomed, Sir Archy, and other pure-bred horses in this country, has seen that the effect is a gradual shortening of the line from hip to hock, and also a lengthening of the distance of the hock from the ground . . . longer hind cannons. This is the galloping leverage; the reverse is the trotting leverage." Whatever may be the case in America, the same conformation Mr, Helm mentions as being necessary for the ideal trotter is in England also sought for as essential to the high- class race-horse. In other respects, indeed in this very instance just men- tioned, his description of the requirements of a trotter is very sound. " A trotter should go level and steady before and behind, and he should not be a sprawler," is true of other breeds besides trotters, for unless the machinery works perfectly smooth there must be undue excess of motion and consequent loss of power. " A colt must not trot too high nor too low in front, and he must not do all his trotting with his fore-legs " is most excellent advice. It is the hind action which is the chief propelling force, and an animal which goes too close to the ground in front usually does so from a want of development of the flexor muscles of the leg. This the ordinary horseman, without any pretensions to veterinary lore, can easily see for himself by noticing whether the leg just above the knee looks broad, when viewed sideways, and the muscles prominent, with an appearance of strength. Any weakness here is a sure sign that the animal will quickly tire when called upon for a severe effort. RIGIN OF AMERICAN TROTTING HORSES 133 For fast trotting a far-reaching even gait is required, and this necessitates a long forearm with a short cannon-bone below the knee. A horse possessing the contrary shape is almost sure to Hft his knee too high and bang his feet on the ground unduly hard, with the result that he is unable to continue the effort over a long distance or for any length of time, though from being endowed with great energy he may even show superior speed for short distances. For trotting purposes there may be too little bending of the knee, but a far more likely evil, and one more frequently met with, is that there is too much. Mr. Helm gives some interesting measurements of various horses which should be valuable as indicating what the breeder should aim at. The forearm of Volunteer measured 21 inches and his cannon 11:^. Almont measured 21 and 11, " and the common objection against his stock was that they lacked in knee action, while Thorndale, with his 11| and 20J, has far-reaching yet rounding action of his front legs, lifting his knees and slightly bending them — about as pleasing in that respect as the most fastidious eye could demand." Again he observes : "In those descended from St. Lawrence, measuring about 11| and 21, I have found, with unvarying uniformity, a far-reaching, gently curving, but never hard-pounding action of the front feet, that can hardly be surpassed." Of course no absolute rule can be laid down as to exact measurements required, but it would appear that approxi- mately a cannon of 11^ inches and a forearm of 21 is very near perfection. Special families have had their own peculiarities of action. For instance, the Messengers were noted for little knee- action, a consequence of their long forearms and short cannon-bones ; while the Morgans, on the contrary, were remarkable for high action. Smuggler too, had very high knee action, and his front cannon-bone measured 12 inches, while his forearm was 20 J. Mr. Helm states : " He lifts his knees, apparently, higher than his elbow . . . and the vio- lence with which he brings them to the ground is shown in 134 THE HORSE his hammering off two shoes in one race . , . and such shoes as he wears ! They began with thirty-two ounce shoes in front and eight-ounce shoes behind. Does any one ask why they put such an enormous weight on his forefeet ? It is be- cause such weight is requisite to keep him level and perfectly balanced, otherwise he would break, would not hold to the trot, would gallop or trot unsteadily." The result of this conformation of the fore-legs and the mechanical means adopted to modify a faulty construction was only what might be expected. Though the winner of a notable race at the Cleveland Meeting in 1876, and able to trot below 2.16 when everything went right, it was more often that things went wrong, and he was distanced in consequence. Nor was he able to stand the constant training requisite to keep him in balance, and he therefore was early withdrawn to the stud from the trotting-track. To measure the length of the forearm it is usual to take a line from the top of the elbow to the notch in the middle of the knee, though this really includes the upper series of carpal bones also. It is, however, a convenient point to measure to. From this latter to the centre of the ankle- joint will give the length of the cannon-bone. In considering the framework of the trotter, the hind-legs are necessarily one of the first points to be considered, for they are the chief propelling power, and on their leverage and length must depend the distance of each stride and the rapidity of its repetition. A low hock and a short hind cannon are as important as a long forearm and a short fore cannon, for thereby the length from hip to hock is increased, enabling the horse to cover more ground at each stroke than if the hock was situated higher, with consequently a shorter line from the hip. It is necessary also that the thigh should be lengthy from the stifle to the hock ; and fully as important is the muscular development of this region. Muscles owe their chief force to length, and without long bones there cannot be long muscles. The chief ones concerned in the retraction of the leg are the glutaei, situated in the region of the hip ; while those that straighten the leg and propel the horse forward are the triceps and ORIGIN OF AMERICAN TROTTING HORSES 135 the biceps, the latter forming the posterior border of the haunch. If the quarters are long, broad, and well developed generally, the owner of the animal may feel well satisfied that the power needed is sufficiently supplied by nature ; though it is to a great extent due to the extra development in individuals of the especial muscles mentioned, that superiority in speed is shown over their rivals. In this respect attention should also be directed to the projecting bone at the back of the hock, the os calcis or "point of the hock," which acts as a lever to straighten the leg, and is moved by the tendon Achilles and other tendons arising from the muscles which clothe the upper part of the limb. An increase in the length of the lever adds consider- ably to the force of the spring. According to Mr. Helm, the Messengers "had a thigh, and a length from hip to hock, that was exceedingly uniform in its ratio — being a thigh of about 23 inches, and a measure of 39 inches from hip to hock, in a horse of 15.2 or 15.3; but when the cross of the Clay and Bell- founder horse — known as Sayer's Harry Clay — came in, the length of thigh was slightly increased, while the other line was extended to 40 and even 42 inches, with wonderful uniformity." Hambletonian was 24 and 41 ; Lady Thorn, with a thigh only 23 inches, was 42 inches from hip to hock. Smuggler was 40 inches, and so also was Volunteer. " It will be found, in a study of the trotters of the various families, that those members of each family respectively generally excelled which showed the greatest length in this line. ... I like a thigh of fair, but not excessive length — 23 to 24 inches, but no longer — and if a long one, then I want the hock well let down — a long line from hip to hock, 24 and 40, or even 41 — but the long reach in this direction may also amount to a dwelling action. Until it approaches that, I want to see a horse's hock low down and far out behind when extended. I don't like one that lifts his hock and strikes the cross-bar of a sulky. Such fellows will display an excess of motion, and trotters that show excessive motion in any respect have a conformation that is unnecessarily exposed to wear 136 THE HORSE and tear. The smooth easy-going fellows, that go much faster than they appear to go, are the ones for a long race. Such will be found to possess the middle ground of con- formation, front and rear." These remarks practically sum up what is to be learned in this direction. To obtain the accurate length, measure from the centre of the hip-joint to the outer point of the hock ; and from the knuckle of the stifle-joint to the same place for the length of the thigh. In conclusion Mr. Helm may be again quoted : " The tape-line is no direct measure of speed, but it is an indicator of the adaptation of part to part — the speed and capacity for endurance at that way of going." Other necessary attributes are good sound open feet, to stand the wear and tear of training and racing ; large knees and hocks, with consequent well-developed carpal and tarsal bones, designed to minimise the shock of concussion, and long well-sloped shoulders that have the same end in view. There must also be ample room for the play of lungs and heart, wherefore the chest must be deep and the ribs well sprung ; while to afford space for the wind- pipe, and give ease in breathing when at full speed, the angle of the jaws must be set wide apart, and the neck must not be so thick as to restrict the throat by the mass of muscular surroundings. When the form of the horse is such that he is physically adapted to cover a length of ground at each stride, whilst his poise is so perfect he does not need artificial appliances to maintain his balance, with a free-and-easy passage of air to meet the demands of an increasing circulation, whilst his temperament is so generous that he is ever desirous to obey the wishes of his master, yet of such high courage that he is ready to summon forth his utmost power when called upon to do so, then every element is there which is requisite for the highest class of trotter, and to enable him to obtain a niche amongst the noted champions of the track. The Beeeding of Teottees. A careful study of the pedigrees of early famous trotting horses shows that while they had much thoroughbred blood ORIGIN OF AMERICAN TROTTING HORSES 137 in their veins, some of them having two or three crosses, it nearly always came through sires ; and the produce of a thoroughbred mare by a trotting stallion seldom trained on after two or three years old, although it might display great speed at first. Blue blood, however, was a necessity in the family tree — for that alone has the capacity for imparting a high state of nervous vigour and action to the produce of a low-born animal. Many of the dams of the old-time champions were great road mares, capable of doing very fast performances in the course of their ordinary work, and when these came to be mated with a thoroughbred horse, which had the gift of getting animals which took naturally to trotting, the produce frequently became a star in the trotting world. As breeding progressed, however, thorough- bred mares came to play a great part as dams and gran- dams of famous horses. When there was a sufficiency of blood in an animal to enable him to continue to travel at a very high rate of speed, he was well-bred enough to mate with mares that also possessed some " blood." This was very early shown by the success of the famous Bellfounder, who had a great deal of the best racing blood in his composition. His sire. Old Bellfounder, was a descendant of the Fireaways, who descended in tail male from Flying Childers. His dam Velocity was by Haphazard, a grandson of Eclipse, and must have had other good strains, since it is recorded of her that she trotted sixteen miles in one hour on the Norwich road in 1806, and won her match — which she had done her best to lose, since she broke into a gallop fifteen times, and had as often to be turned round in consequence. When the daughter of Bellfounder was mated with Abdallah, who was so closely inbred to Messenger, the produce was the mighty sire Hambletonian, whose descendants enrolled in the coveted 2.30 register may now be said to be legions. As Mr. Hamilton Busbey remarks in " The Trotting and the Pacing Horse in America " : "It was not so much the speed of his sons and daughters as their ability to transmit speed which placed Hambletonian on the summit of the mountam." 138 THE HORSE The pedigree of Messenger betrays many ancestors through whom the trotting instinct may have descended, for both Turks and Barbs are much more frequently ridden at a trotting gait than are Arabians, whose masters do not appreciate this gait. Messenger's pedigree is as follows : — Breeding of Dams. First dam, by Turf, by Matchem, by Cade, by Godolphin Arabian. Second dam, by Regulus, by Godolphin Arabian. Third dam, by Bolton Starling. Fourth dam, by Fox. Fifth dam, Gipsey, by Bay Bolton. Sixth dam, by Newcastle Turk. Seventh dam, by Byerly Turk. Eighth dam, by Taffolet Barb. Ninth dam, by Place's White Turk, out of a natural Barb mare. Breeding of Sires. First sire, Mambrino. Second sire. Engineer, dam by Young Greyhound — mare by Curwen's bay Barb. Third sire, Sampson, dam by Hip, son of Curwen's bay Barb. Fourth sire. Blaze. Fifth sire. Flying Childers. Sixth sire, Darley Arabian. Thus out of the ancestors of nine dams mentioned, three are Turks and two Barbs, while the Godolphin Arabian figures twice. Moreover, it is well known that the Byerly Turk was ridden as a charger by his owner, when trotting would be a gait constantly required from him, probably more so than galloping. Amongst the forefathers of Mambrino may be noted Curwen's bay Barb, who appears twice, thus bringing in still more strains of horses accus- tomed to the trotting gait. No surprise need then be felt that Messenger was able to leave a line of great trotters when crossed with mares accustomed to the road. The portrait of Mambrino at Eaton Hall, by George Stubbs, shows him to have been a compactly built, powerful horse, with a great deal of Arab character about him, but at ^^ >. s x^ — < O t" .S-^ E rt g '3 y a._S o rt (5 - S 4J OX ORIGIN OF AMERICAN TROTTING HORSES 139 the same time taking more after the type of the Barb in his forehand, carrying his head well up, with a well arched neck and a considerable crest. He appears an active, well poised horse, likely to have been an excellent saddle-horse, but from his short forearms and long cannons he would apparently bend his knee too much for great pace, although as a matter of fact he was credited with trotting very fast indeed. An important element in the American trotter is the blood of Duroc, who was a large and powerful chestnut horse, by imported Diomed, the first winner of the Epsom Derby. Duroc was foaled in 1806 in Virginia, and the breeding of his dam, Amanda, is especially interesting to Englishmen in general and to Yorkshiremen in particular, for she was by Grey Diomed (no relation to imported Diomed), son of imported Medley, who was by the renowned Gimcrack, in whose honour the celebrated Gimcrack Club at York give an annual dinner (the last was the one hundred and forty-second in direct succession), when a large number of the most prominent turfites in England are their guests. It is at this banquet that any great innovations in the Rules of Racing, or other important coming events, are fore- shadowed in the speech of the principal guest of the evening, a member of the Jockey Club, and usually one of the three Stewards. The chief features of the Duroc family were a large and powerful frame, long powerful thighs and gaskins, with good bone. The American Star and Mambrino Chief families all inherit the blood of Duroc, and with it the characteristic long thigh, 24 inches in horses of 15.2. In England the blood of Gimcrack has almost if not quite died out, but it shows much vitality in America, chiefly by aid of the great trotting strains. It was, however, also inherited by Ogden's Messenger, a thoroughbred horse, by Messenger out of Katy Fisher, by imported Highflyer, who was by Highflyer out of a mare by Gimcrack. Ogden's Messenger was the reputed sire of Tipoo, who through his son Black Warrior founded the family of Royal Georges. A further thoroughbred line from the celebrated little grey horse can 140 THE HORSE be traced through Komp, by imported Messenger out of the imported Pot-8-os mare, who was out of a mare by Gimcrack. A notable Hne of trotters was founded by the Barb horse Grand Bashaw, who was moreover jet-black, and was imported from Tripoli in 1820. Through his famous grandson, Andrew Jackson, he became the founder of the Clays, though some of these had an unenviable reputation for want of courage in a closely contested race. This unfor- tunate trait is generally admitted to have been introduced by the dam of Henry Clay, a Canadian mare named Surry, who was herself a trotting mare. Andrew Jackson, however, was also sire of Long Island Black-Hawk, who, distinguished both as a trotter and a sire, left a long line of descendants sa7is peiir et sans reproche. Beside Messenger and Bellfounder must be placed Justin Morgan as a most illustrious ancestor of trotting horses, and here again the value of thoroughbred blood is shown, for there is little doubt his sire, True Briton, or, as he is sometimes called, Beautiful Bay, was thoroughbred, while his dam was said to be of the Wildair breed, and undoubtedly possessed a large share of good blood. Justin Morgan was foaled in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1793, and was bought when two years old by the gentleman, Mr. Justin Morgan, after whom he was named. Though the horse himself and his immediate descendants in the first generation had no great speed, they had many admirable qualities which they have transmitted to their progeny, and their blood has been valuable for crossing with the other strains. It is through three sons of the old horse — Woodbury Morgan, foaled in 1816, Bulrush Morgan, and Sherman — that lineal descent can now be chiefly traced. A renowned animal, with undoubted good blood in his veins, that appeared later upon the scene was old Black Pilot, the Canadian pacer, who introduced a hardy and invaluable strain and was a most impressive sire. He could pace a mile in 2.26 carrying 11 st. 11 lbs. on his back, although he was under 15 hands in height, and thus proved himself an admirable weight-carrier. He was purchased from a ORIGIN OF AMERICAN TROTTING HORSES 141 pedlar at New Orleans, about 1832, but was soon after- wards sold to Mr. Heinshon, of Louisville, Kentucky, where many of the best-bred saddle-horses of America were to be found, and in such he infused his own vigour and hardiness, a fortunate boon for the country in general. He not only produced fast performers himself, but was able to transmit the same power to his sons, who have been noted sires, such as Pilot Junior, Tom Crowder, Ole Bull, and numerous others. A great-great-grandson of Messenger, destined to become one of the most famous of the foundation sires, was Mam- brino Chief, bred by Mr. Richard Eldridge, of New York, in 1844. Although he but sired six sons and daughters able to trot in 2.30, or under, his descendants able to do so are almost countless, while the famous Lady Thorn alone, who trotted 106 heats inside the standard, was sufficient to make the reputation of any stallion. The earliest trotting races were usually under the saddle, for, roads being primitive, riding was more general than driving, while the race-tracks were far from being in the state of perfection they are to-day. The wagons in use, too, were very different to the pneumatic-tyred, ball-bearing sulkies now in use, and it was difficult then to find an animal capable of trotting in harness a mile in three minutes, the first authentic record of such a performance being that of the black gelding Boston Blue, at Jamaica, New York, in 1818. By degrees, as the tracks and wagons improved, so also did the time records, though but slowly, and it was not till 1845 that the modern standard time was reached, when Lady Suffolk trotted the mile, in 2.29^ on the Beacon Course, at Hoboken, New Jersey. Four years afterwards, on July 2, 1849, she reached 2.28, at Centreville, Long Island, a performance that had already been attained by a bay gelding, Pelham. Flora Temple first got inside 2.20, her record being 2.19f, in 1859, at Kalamazoo, Michigan, and then Jay-eye-see reached 2.10 in 1884. Finally Lou Dillon, with the help of a pace-maker with a dirt-shield in front of her, trotted in 1.58^, at Memphis, October 24, 1903. The bicycle sulky came into use in 1882, and Maud S. still 142 THE HORSE holds the record for a high wheel on an oval track, when she trotted in 2.08f , at Cleveland, in 1885. On a kite track the bay mare Sunol beat the record of Maud S. by half a second, trotting at Stockton in 2.08^, in 1891, but the one long turn of such a configuration had a great advantage in point of speed over the ordinary track with two turns. Kite tracks were not popular with the spectators and soon went out of use. It is estimated that a bicycle sulky is five seconds faster for a mile than the old high wheel. When comparing the respective merits of present horses with those of an earlier date these conditions, and also the constant improvement of the tracks, must be borne in mind, as they are all to the disadvantage of the older horses. The art of balancing horses by shoeing has been also brought to greater perfec- tion. Smuggler used to trot at first with shoes weighing 32 oz. on each fore-foot, which were afterwards reduced to 25 oz., and when trotting a great race against Goldsmith Maid, at Cleveland, July 27, 1876, he had the misfortune to cast one of his shoes more than a quarter mile from home, which must have caused him much loss of balance. Even then he was only beaten by a length, Goldsmith Maid winning the race in 2.15|. It is a remarkable fact in connection with this celebrated mare, who was the first to reach 2.17, that she was seventeen years of age when she made her best record, 2.14, at Mystic Park, Boston, on September 2, 1874. Such shoes as were deemed necessary for Smuggler are, however, very exceptional burthens, and when Lou Dillon made the record for wagon 2.0 at Readville, Massachusetts, in 1903, she wore 4J oz. shoes on her fore-feet and only 2f oz. shoes behind. Lou Dillon was foaled in 1898, and so was five years old when she made her great record, 1.58^, at Memphis, October 24, 1903, driven by Millard Sanders. Her great rival. Major Delmar, a gelding, also made his record the same year, trotting at Memphis in 1.59f , when six years old, under the guidance of E. E. Smathers, but he had the help of a pace-maker in front with a dirt-shield. The record for stallions is held by Cresceus, who, driven by his owner and ORIGIN OF AMERICAN TROTTING HORSES 143 breeder, Mr. G. H. Ketcham, of Toledo, trotted as a seven- year-old in 2.2^, at Columbus, Ohio, August 2, 1901, gaining thereby the then record of the world, and placing his owner on the highest pinnacle of fame as combining in his own person the owner, breeder, and driver of the champion. It is noteworthy that these three record-holders all trace back in tail male to Hambletonian, and so from Messenger, and, with many other famous names in their pedigrees, afford convincing proof of the rewards to be gained by careful selection in breeding, and the truth of the old proverb that " like begets like." There is need, however, to guard against too close inbreeding to any animal, however illustrious, though such method is frequently unavoidable at the beginning, when there are few distinguished sires at the disposal of breeders ; but, while it fixes a type and also often produces exception- ally brilliant individuals, it is yet apt to sacrifice sterling qualities, and result in the decadence of a race, by occasion- ing weak constitutions and nervous, excitable temperaments. Such has to a large extent been frequently the portion of breeders of British race-horses, carried away by the glamour of a great name. In a critical examination of the pedigree of Lou Dillon it will be seen how frequently the lines run back to Hambletonian, though in her case there has been safety in the extreme out-crosses of her two grandams, Venus and Fly. Others who seek to follow on the same lines may, perhaps, be less careful, and be disappointed in their expectations, through breeding in too closely to one famous animal. It is a principle that requires the utmost care to bring to a successful issue, so as to carry on the excellence through successive generations. 144 THE HORSE is c6 *-* S M 01 5 -2 1 :S Is p=< o !Z5 O 1— 1 O i^ H H H W « m g o « ;::;; HH ^ r^ I ^ -^ §s §^ rf CO g H a ^M-l 0 >i += bo a c8 0 -t^ ■^ tH a ■3 0 0 Eh 02 P^ ■ — . — ' f-, •^ bo r-" o3 ce .§ -ti -^5 a f^ 'S a 0 o 0 CO t» -fj M _ 0 (B f^ 0 CO +2 .^ a a g 01 0 S 01 u 0 H s ^ 0 -t^ 1—1 cS 0 O) C' ^ O c o5 a ^g ^ pq a-n pR Q 19 S s a o 30 o OKIGIN OF AMERICAN TROTTING HORSES U5 -tJ CO ' <1 r-i tc 03 .S ij O cS r2 Q 3 K-i g -t^ cS c3 hj td c3 « ^ n3 -(3 -I— » CQ be CD CD s 0 -O C ^ § "^ g ^ s P- o rd fl c3 o §^ en c to S g o 5 !B tC td 2 a; w