CHAPTER III 



DETERIORATION OF THE HORSE IN ENGLAND 



It will appear plainly, from what has been written 

 above, how greatly horses have deteriorated of late 

 in Australia. Some of the authorities cited have 

 shown that they must have deteriorated in England 

 also. But this chapter will give some particulars 

 of how greatly they have thus deteriorated. 



Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart., in a recent book,* points 

 out that seventeen years ago he drew attention to the 

 deterioration of the horse in England, and asks if 

 our position to-day is any better than it was in the 

 year 1884, and then proceeds to show that it is 

 worse. Not merely as bad, but worse. He quotes 

 Colonel Hallen as saying that, while the animal got 

 by the English thoroughbred is as a rule handsome, 

 he is often shallow in girth and back rib, light in 

 barrel, and from 70 to So per cent, of them are 

 leggy and deficient in bone and limb. He points 

 out that diseases of the legs are more common 

 among thoroughbred stock — e.g., curb, bone-spavin, 



* ' Horse - Breeding in England and India, and Army Horses 

 Abroad.' 



26 



