CHAPTER VI 



THE ENGLISH THOROUGHBRED HORSE 



GENERAL HISTOP.Y — THE ENGLISH THOROTJGHBRED HORSE OF 1750 — HIS ORIGIN — THE 

 MODERN THOROUGHBRED — INCREASE OF SIZE AND SYMMETRY — COMPARATIVE STOUT- 

 NESS — EARLY MATURITY — OBJECT OF ENCOURAGING THE BREED — ESSENTIALS IN THE 

 THOROUGHBRED — PURITY OF BLOOD — EXTERNAL FORMATION — HEIGHT — COLOUR — COAT, 

 MANE, AND TAIL — THE THOROUGHBRED HUNTER AND STEEPLECHASER. 



GENERAL HISTORY 



We HAVE NO RECORD of the existence of the horse in England until tl e 

 time of the Roman invasion of the island, when we know that large 

 numbers were found here ready to oppose the landing, and used both in 

 chariots and as cavalry. But this country never became remarkable for 

 her breed of horses until after the time of the Stuarts, who paid great 

 attention to this animal, and caused numbers of Arab stallions and 

 mares to be imported. In the time of Henry the Eighth, the want of 

 good horses was so much felt, that an Act was passed, forbidding any 

 entire horse of a greater age than two years, and less than 15 hands 

 high, to be turned out in any common or waste land in the counties of 

 Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Buckingham, Huntingdon, Essex, Kent, 

 Hampshire, Wiltshire, Oxford, Berkshire, Worcester, Gloucester, Somerset, 

 Bedfordshire, Warwickshire, Northampton, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Stafford- 

 shire, Lancashire, Salop, Leicester, Hereford, Lincoln, and North or South 

 Wales. In other counties the limit was put at 14 hands, but for 

 what reason I am not aware. Small weedy mares and foals were also 

 ordered to be destroyed ; and the owners of horses infected with a con- 

 tagious disease, who turned them out, were fined ten shillings. Still, the 

 deficiency was so great, that in the time of the threatened invasion by 

 the Spanish Armada, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, only three thousand 

 horses could be collected for the cavalry ; and, to procure these, a serious 

 interruption was produced in the internal traffic of the kingdom, which 

 was then carried on by means of pack-horses. It appears, however, that 

 on board the Spanish ships there wxre a great number of the Andalusian 

 horses, which were then considered the best in Europe; and these being 

 taken possession of by the victorious admiral for his mistress, were of 

 great service in improving the breed. In her reign coaches were invented, 

 and this was another reason for encouraging the size and strength of the 



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