28 THE ARAB THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE 



but wrote a letter to the Times so lately as March 12, 

 1902, in which he said that horse-breeding was going 

 from bad to worse in England. Of course it would 

 be so, because the same causes were operating 

 from day to day in almost geometrical ratio, and the 

 influence of racing men was so great that people 

 would not trouble to think till the Boer successes 

 brought it home to their minds with such terrible 

 results. 



Breeders in Australia, and, I believe, also breeders 

 in England, are beginning to realize — and they will 

 not improve their horse-flesh until they do thoroughly 

 realize — the fact that to breed for horse-racing is 

 not to breed for use, and that the worst of sires is a 

 weedy thoroughbred. It may be that at one time 

 racing improved the breed of horses, although even 

 that is doubtful. It does so no longer, and to affirm 

 that it does is a sham — one of those huge shams for 

 which these latter days are so notorious. 



So long ago as 1874, Mr. De Vere Hunt, in his 

 book ' England's Horses in Peace and War,' wrote 

 that England stood in great danger of really losing 

 the horse altogether as a sound and useful animal 

 because of the many causes that had been for many 

 years progressively co-operating to deteriorate. He 

 might now almost ask, * Have we not lost him ? Is 

 he not bred out ?' 



He wrote of Ireland that the deterioration of the 

 breed of horses must be considered as an evident and 

 acknowledged fact, and amongst the causes he placed 



