16 FARM ANIMALS 



in contrast to other horses which were half-breeds 

 or mongrels. The name has persisted so that at 

 present the term Thoroughbred should be applied 

 only to the pure breed of race horses originated in 

 England and later transplanted to the United 

 States and various other countries. In the numer- 

 ous books and less extensive articles which have 

 been written on this horse, a considerable percent- 

 age of writers have extolled in glowing terms the 

 Arabian horse and have traced nearly all of the 

 speed, life and endurance of the Thoroughbred to 

 its Arabian blood. Investigations of this matter, 

 however, show that the Arabs originally used 

 camels and were entirely unacquainted with 

 horses until at least as late as the 3rd century of the 

 Christian era. Modern investigators have found 

 that the Arabs are not very excellent horse breeders 

 and recent importations of Arab horses have in all 

 cases proved inferior to the Thoroughbred both in 

 speed and endurance. The credit for establishing 

 the Thoroughbred must therefore be given chiefly 

 to English breeders rather than to the more or less 

 fabulous speed of the Arab horse. The color of 

 the Thoroughbred is brown, bay or chestnut with 

 a blaze on the forehead, or white feet. The breed, 

 as is well known, is racy in build with a tendency 

 to angularity, long slender legs, long neck car- 

 ried not high above the withers, strong back and 

 hindquarters, which, however, are somewhat droop- 

 ing. 



The American Trotter. This breed, as indicated 

 above, is based on the Thoroughbred, as are all 

 other horses showing unusual speed. The founda- 

 tion horse to which the best of American trotters 

 trace their ancestry was known by the name of 

 Messenger, a Thoroughbred. Various modifica- 



