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 



