74 



the number exported ten or fifteen years 

 previously (say about the year 1858), Mr. 

 Phillips replied that the foreigners had 

 always taken as many as they could get. 



Horses of roadster stamp are not less 

 necessary to the efficiency of the British 

 army than to Continental armies ; but while 

 the Committee displayed the greatest care 

 and assiduity in their investigations con- 

 cerning the causes of dearth in saddle 

 horses, they passed over the not less impor- 

 tant question of harness horse supply, as 

 though holding that a matter of no account. 



It is to be regretted that the Committee 

 did not ask questions as to the enormous 

 number of mares purchased for France, 

 Germany, Russia and Austria, and also 

 enquire concerning the use to which the 

 mares are put in those countries. The 

 answers would have been instructive, for it 

 is now well known that fifteen out of every 

 twenty of them were medium and heavy 

 weight hunter mares many of them stale 

 for riding to hounds, but in every other 

 respect suitable for breeding. These foreign 

 buyers had no prejudices : they bought the 

 mares with the view of breeding stock of 

 the type most suitable for the requirements 

 of their respective countries : the mares had 



