232 THE ARAB THE HORSE OF THE FUTURE 



as supporting his views. The latter gentleman says 

 that the proportion of good trotters of the foals 

 got by the great Hambletonian, about three out of 

 a hundred, does not seem to be very high. Mr. 

 Speed adds that the trotting-horse register was 

 built upon myths, false pedigrees, and forged 

 records, and that not more than two per cent, of 

 standard-bred trotters trot fast, all which, according 

 to Mr. Speed's arguments, shows the necessity of 

 ' creating a proper horse type in America from the 

 basic stock of the country, and the parent stock 

 from which all pure horse types come.' By parent 

 stock he means Arabs. 



The following extracts from the report of the 

 Horse and Mule Breeding Commission assembled 

 under the order of the Government of India, 1900- 

 190 1, deserve close study, because so much depends 

 on our being able to breed in Australia, so as to 

 suit the Indian market. The report says that the 

 horses allotted to field artillery at Hosur and 

 Ahmednagar were too big ; that, as a general 

 standard, a height of 14.2 to 1 5.1 should be accepted 

 for all horses. 



It says that the aim of the Government of India 

 has been to horse all regiments of cavalry, and, if 

 possible, eventually artillery, with country- breds and 

 Arabs only. Note that even the artillery are to 

 have Arabs. 



The Commission, previous to visiting the Rajpu- 

 tana and Kathiawar States, had litde expectation of 



