8o 



first and second qualifications will not avail 

 in very fast work for any length of time. 

 The hunter and racer are good or bad, 

 chiefly in proportion to their powers of 

 respiration ^ and such is the case with the 

 road-coach horse." 



The practical disappearance from our 

 country of such horses as those used in 

 the mail and ordinary coaches and in post 

 carriages was nothing short of a national 

 calamity. They were horses of the essen- 

 tially useful stamp, sound, hardy and endur- 

 ing, just such animals as are indispensable 

 for cavalry, artillery, and transport work on 

 a campaign. And though the full import- 

 ance of the loss which had befallen us was 

 evident, the difficulties in the way of retriev- 

 ing our position as breeders was not less 

 evident. The breeding of horses had ceased 

 to be remunerative, and as a natural conse- 

 quence men had ceased to breed them, 

 preferring to devote their energies and 

 capital to stock of a stamp for which they 

 could depend upon finding a market. Any 

 horses of the useful class that were produced 

 found their way, if worth having, into the 

 hands of foreigners, as we have seen. 



In March, 1887, Lord Ribblesdale took 

 the matter up and in a very able speech 



