6 THE HORSE 



use of the horse was confined to war and the chase. These games were 

 held every four years, and are supposed to have commenced about 774 

 years before Christ, and as it was not until the twenty-third Olympiad that 

 the horse was introduced in the arena, the birth of horse-racing may be 

 fixed at about the year 680 B.C. At first the horses were ridden, and the 

 distance was about four miles, but in the twenty-fifth Olympiad the chariot 

 was introduced, and after this time became the prevailing instrument of 

 testing the speed and powers of the Grecian horse. Here, also, the 

 distance was about four miles, but as a pillar was to be rounded several 

 times, the race depended quite as much on the skill of the charioteer as on 

 the qualities of his horses. 



