228 THE ARAB THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE 



America,' is well worth studying. He pronounced 

 the United States to be the greatest horse-pro- 

 ducing country in the world ; and he concluded his 

 article with a wail as to thoroughbred degeneracy 

 even in America. He states that the thoroughbreds 

 in America are bred and trained to respond to the 

 demand ' to sprint — that is, to go short distances 

 quickly' — which seemed to him not a good change, 

 except for the gambling game, into which racing 

 has degenerated ; for it removes the thoroughbreds 

 of to-day further from the desirable horse type that 

 is needed, and makes them, therefore, much less 

 useful than they might be. Indeed, one can almost 

 believe that Mr. Speed would desire that the remedy 

 should be pursued which he states that Henry VHI. 

 adopted, who issued a sweeping decree that all 

 mares and stallions in the Royal Forests not up 

 to a certain standard should be killed. 



What a blessing if that could be done with some 

 of the thousand-pounders ! — with all those which 

 are entered in the Stud- Book, and which are therein 

 stated not to be worthy of entry! 



It had been supposed that the great Morgan 

 breed of the States was founded upon the English 

 thoroughbred, but Mr. Speed says that he doubts 

 whether, in the making of this type, the thorough- 

 bred blood of England figures at all, and that it is 

 much more likely that it was produced by the union 

 of Arab blood with some other American basic 

 stock. Any other American basic stock must have 



