110 HISTORY OF THE 



never to fail except in competition with it. It is the pe- 

 culiar descent of the thorough hred horse, combined 

 with a careful selection of sires and dams, and the 

 utmost attention in management exercised through- 

 out a lengthened period, which may be said to have 

 combined in the formation of that excellence under- 

 stood by the term blood. Already greatly improved 

 by the introduction of racing, before the introduc- 

 tion of Eastern blood, the English horse was 

 eminently qualified to receive the good effect which 

 so speedily evinced itself after that event. 



If Osmer's doctrine held good, that there must 

 be this elegance of form, these nice proportions in 

 the Hmbs, or moving levers of the race horse, how 

 is it, we would ask, that so many of those called 

 cross naade, plain and apparently disproportioned 

 horses, possess the power or parts conducive to 

 speed and action. 



One of the ablest anonymous writers on this sub- 

 ject wethat remember to have met with, has thus 

 treated this point. ''If blood can be defined tobe the 

 peculiar elegance in the texture of the external parts, 

 how happens it, that several very ugly horses and 

 mares have at all times distinguished themselves 

 on the turf? Are there certain occult causes, not 

 discernable to the eye, that produce this excellence, 

 to which the rules and laws of action appear to be 

 opposed ? On these points it may be observed, 

 first, that the force and effect of muscular motion 



