58 Among Men and Horses. 



of about 10 stone to 8 stone 7 Ibs. for several years by limit- 

 ing the quantity of fluid he drank to one pint, but made no 

 restriction as to its nature. Under this privation, he kept his 

 health, strength, and ' nerve ' ; but then he is a very exception- 

 ally 'hard man.' Had he done the most of his riding in 

 England, instead of in India, I am confident that the public 

 would consider him, as I do, as good a horseman, whether 

 jockey or gentleman, as ever rode a race. 



An untravelled Englishman or Irishman is apt to think 

 that horses are more or less the same all over the world ; 

 though of course, in his opinion, nowhere so good as in his 

 native country. Horses, however, are so greatly modified by 

 the effects of climate, that each country, independently of the 

 influence of selection, has its own particular type of animal, 

 just as it has its own particular type of man. We see that 

 European children born and bred in the tropics, acquire the 

 small bones and delicate physique of the natives, in the same 

 manner as the produce of imported stock loses to a great 

 extent the characteristics of its sires and dams, even in the 

 first generation. After three or four generations, almost all 

 trace of the home blood will have disappeared. The type of 

 Indian horse, taking it all round, is that of an under-sized, 

 hardy * weed/ capable of standing a great deal of hardship, so 

 long as its small amount of strength is not overtaxed. At 

 best it is capable of making an excellent light cavalry trooper 

 up to, say, I3st. /lb. At that limit of weight, its use, of 

 course, would have to be limited to natives of India. For 

 many years and at an immense expenditure of money, the 

 Indian Government studs fought the climate by the constant 

 importation of English sires, which were chiefly imported by Mr 

 Phillips the once well known London dealer. The costlyexotics 

 thus produced, yielded only a small percentage of animals up 

 to remount standard ; but no permanent effect was made or 

 could be made, on the native breed of horses, which, however 

 much stimulated for the time being, quickly reverted, on the 

 relaxation of the forcing process, to its original type. The 



