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. 



