158 Cross-Breeding in Horses. 



cruel; but, so long as racing is supported by the public as a 

 pastime, the former will not be abolished nor the latter restored.* 



Do away with the excitement of the struggle, and by greatly 

 lengthening the race render its finish the slowest part of the 

 contest, and people will be contented to read the result in the 

 newspapers at home. Let us suppose that the racing of two- 

 year-olds was altogether abolished, and that the Derby was con- 

 tended for by four-year-olds, what would be the result? The 

 expense of keeping racehorses would be enormously increased, 

 perhaps to the extent of 100,000/. per annum. And after all, 

 even if these innovations could be introduced, they would alto- 

 gether fail in their professed object — that of improving the 

 stoutness of the thorough-bred horse.t 



We frequentlv hear of horses that are very speedy for a mile, but 

 fail altogether in a longer race. Now, on what does this want 

 of stamina or stoutness depend? and, secondly, can it be dis- 

 covered or ascertained by the external conformation of the 

 animal ? The speed of the horse depends on the length of the 

 stride, and the frequency or rapidity with which these strides 

 can be repeated, and in proportion to these efforts is the demand 

 made on the organs of respiration and circulation and on the 

 nervous system. Excessive speed is, therefore, in itself one cause 

 of its short duration, inasmuch as it exhausts the vital powers. 

 In many cases the locomotive and vital powers may not be well 

 balanced : the former may be those of a first-class, and the latter 

 those of a second-class animal. To a certain extent this want of 

 bottom can be ascertained by the conformation, but to a certain 

 extent only. If the horse is very leggy, light in the carcass, and 

 narrow or deficient in depth of chest, the probability is that he 

 is speedy, but not enduring. Sometimes, however,^ an animal 

 shows none of these faults of form, and yet, though speedy for a 



* The system of racing at two years old, -whilst it is always trying and often 

 fatal to the fore-legs and joints of the young animals, does not appear to be 

 injurious to the constitution ; for we have numerous instances of famous stud- 

 horses living to a good age, although they have raced thus early. That stout and 

 successful sire the " British Yeoman," tlie winner of the first prize at the Koyal 

 Agricultural Society's show at Chelmsford in 1856, fourteen years previously had 

 -won four large stakes as a two-year-old, and the following year ran fourth for 

 the Derby. 



t If some of our stoutest thorough-breds have been discarded in consequence of 

 their not being speedy enough to win short races, what has become of these 

 horses, -whose services would have been so valuable for half-bred mares ? I 

 rather believe that speed and stoutness are mostly combined in great winners, as 

 in " Eclipse " and " King Herod " of old, and, at the present day, in " Stockwell " 

 and " Blair Athol," the latter of whom unquestionably won his great races by 

 his stoutness, for he was probably equalled in speed for half the race by several of 

 his competitors. Surely the St. Leger, and other still longer races, must in nine 

 years out of ten be -won by stout horses, and as such horses are always used for 

 the stud afterwards, they must have handed down to their posterity their 

 stoutness as well as their speed. 



