WILD HORSES. 2(>5 



tion, and marks have probably resulted from domestication. A 

 few of the origiual breed also probably were Albinoes. 



With regard to shape, all the evidence tends to the belief that in 

 all the points which render a horse useful to mankind, domestication 

 has improved him, though he probably has been rendered less endur- 

 ing and more liable to disease. The cave horse, whose portrait has 

 been handed down to us carved on horn, had a large head, thick 

 neck, big mane, and coarse and clumsy points (Duncan); but we have 

 seen that the artist cannot be absolutely relied on for proportions.* 

 If we be permitted to imagine, on the basis of what we know of the 

 oldest wild horses and of the least cared-for breeds, we may describe 

 the original horse as follows : — Head large, fine or coarse in the 

 muzzle, badly put on, eyes far back, ears large, neck thick and 

 coarse, shoulder small aud upright, forearm muscular and short, 

 tendons a little deficient below the knee, pasterns upright, feet 

 blocky aud good, back rather short, girth moderate, loins muscular, 

 quarters round, tail set on low, hocks big and compact but very 

 short, thighs very short but muscular. 



Now, such a horse is not at all what we would try to buy for any 

 domestic purpose, but it is the unspecialised form which in the zebra 

 aud wild ass we find compatible with fair speed, remarkable endur- 

 ance, and other high qualities. I, as a horseman, criticising the 

 works of Nature, must not be supposed to be indulging in ridiculous 

 fault-finding with perfection. The wild horse is suited admirably to 

 the wild free life for which he is intended, but he cannot compete 

 either in speed with the race-horse (although his speed is not 

 inconsiderable), in strength with the draught horse (though he can 

 perform collar work moderately well with little training), nor is he, 

 until brought under the controlling influence of man for several 

 generations, and influenced in a particular direction by artificial 

 selection, specially suited for any domestic purpose. The adapt- 

 ability for work shown by the descendants of horses which have 

 recently gone wild is wonderful. The little training the Australian 

 and American horses receive to enable them to work proves that 

 they have not yet outlived the inheritance of the useful quality of 

 obedience to man. That a traveller should be able to cross South 

 America by impressing wild horses successively to carry him is 

 extraordinary. 



In size there can be no doubt that (though an enormous fossil 



* One of his ponies is not a bad shaped one, the other is like a Tapir. 



