l^rODERN FARRIER. 'l6l 



"^ The fifth has no particular character, being the 

 result of accidental crossing among the rest. Still, 

 notwithstanding the mixture, the influence of the 

 Arabian blood may be traced in some degree even 

 among the most common sort. 



' The English have procured Arabian horses, and 

 have devoted the greatest attention ajid care to their 

 system of breediiig, particularly by publishing the 

 genealogv of those v/hich they considered as their 

 best produce. They have well understood the im- 

 portance of this publication, for, by these means, 

 they have been able to have recourse to stallions 

 and mares that approached the nearest to the origi- 

 nal blood, for the purpose of breeding, and thereby 

 to preserve the breed from degenerating. 



' Such is the state of breeding-horses in England, 

 where they pretend that they have no occasion to 

 return to Arabian horses, an opinion which appears 

 to be founded rather on the estimation in which 

 the English hold their own breed, or the fictitious 

 value which they wish to put upon then.', than upon 

 fact. 



*The race-horse is, in England, a grand object of 

 luxury and expense. jMany rich families have been 

 ruined by the enormous wagers wiiich take place at 

 their races, as w^ell as the expence of keeping the 

 horses. It will hardlv be believed that thev have 

 carried their system to such an excess as to cover 

 whole fields uith sand, in order to produce a more 

 delicate herbage, and more assimilated to that which 

 grows in Arabia, from whence the blood of these 

 race-horses originated, from the apprehension that 

 the coarser sort of grass w^ould affect their wind ; 

 and that five or six grooms, at six guineas per 

 month each, are employed to take care of one horse ; 

 and that they v,^arm the water for the horse to drink 

 in winter, with other ridiculous customs, unknown 

 even to the Arabs.' 



X 



