THE ENGLISH KACE HORSE. 85 



are called "Galloways." Brocklesby Betty was one of the great 

 mares of her day, and the Stud Book says that "as a runner, she 

 was thought to be the superior of any horse or mare of her time." 

 She was foaled 1711, was got by Curwen Bay Barb ancl out of Mr. 

 Leedes' Hobby Mare. She was a brood mare before she was 

 trained, and her performances were soon after the establishment 

 of the Racing Calendars, which show her great superiority. The 

 "Hobbies" were a breed of Irish pacing horses that had been 

 noted for more than a hundred years, on both sides of the Irish 

 channel, as saddle horses, hunters, and runners. The theory 

 that these "Irish Hobbies" were descended from the horses on 

 board one of the ships of the Spanish Armada, that was wrecked 

 on the Irish coast, is purely fanciful, for they were known as a 

 breed long before the Spanish Armada was projected. The Hob- 

 bies were larger and better formed, as a rule, than the Galloways, 

 and more highly esteemed. These illustrations of the influence 

 and power of indigenous blood in the formation of the breed 

 known throughout the world as the English race horse might be 

 extended indefinitely, but let these suffice. With the "'Gallo- 

 ways" and the "Hobbies," well known to our ancestors two hun- 

 dred years ago as established breeds or tribes of horses, we cannot 

 avoid the conclusion that they were very prodigal of fancy and 

 very economical of truth when they attempted to clothe Bald 

 Galloway, Leedes' Hobby, etc., in foreign pedigrees to make 

 them fashionable. Aside from the matters of evidence here intro- 

 duced going to show the composite material entering into the 

 constitution, structure and instincts of the race horse as he is to- 

 day, there is another that plays a very prominent part in the 

 combination. When we see a race horse fourteen hands high, 

 and another of equally pure blood standing beside him seventeen 

 hands high, we naturally wonder, and ask, Why this difference 

 in size? The Turk, the Barb, the Hobby, the Galloway, and in- 

 deed all the old English racing stock, were very small, scarcely 

 averaging fourteen hands. After we have made every allowance 

 for a salubrious climate and a generous and unstinted dietary we 

 must concede a gradual increase of growth, but these things fail to 

 account for a difference of twelve inches in the height of two 

 horses bred in the same lines for untold generations. The con- 

 clusion seems to be inevitable that there were big horses as well 

 as little ones in the original combination of ancestors. From 

 these diverse sources of his inheritance, it becomes plain to the 



