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 



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