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 



