BREEDING. 115 



English nurture and climate will bring the Eastern horses 

 within reach of our older established breed. 



Be this as it may, Major Stapylton, another authority on this 

 'Eastern question/ considers that the Poles have one hundred 

 years start of us at increasing the size of these horses, and 

 that there are in Poland some horses of the purest blood which 

 have attained the height of sixteen hands and more. That 

 these should compete with the Anglo-Eastern breed is not to 

 be thought of ; but, the size being obtained, it would be 

 interesting to see if an importation of Polish Eastern mares 

 and stallions into this country would improve more rapidly 

 as to speed than those which have been brought over, straight 

 from the East, with the object of attaining both size and 

 speed. 



It is much to be hoped that Major Stapylton will give his 

 theory a chance, for though our climate and soil develop the 

 frame, they are apt to cause unsoundness and pulmonary 

 disease, and it is possible that in course of time our stock may 

 degenerate, and an infusion of sounder blood may become 

 absolutely necessary. Prince Brinitzky is the greatest of Polish 

 breeders. At a very early date after the breed of which we are 

 now so proud was fairly established, we no doubt had a horse 

 in Eclipse which was quite the equal of anything that has run in 

 the memory of living man. Much has been written about him, 

 and we must of course accept as a fact that from five years of 

 age upwards he performed extraordinary feats in beating the 

 horses of his own era ; yet the time in which he is alleged to 

 have covered certain distances must always remain a matter 

 of uncertainty, for it is hardly credible that the watchmakers 

 of the last century had arrived at the perfection which is now 

 shown in our stop-watches. Still there is this strong argument 

 in favour of Eclipse having run the Beacon Course (4 miles 

 i furlong 143 yards) under the eight minutes viz. that in 

 modern days the Liverpool Steeplechase course, which is half a 

 mile and 77 yards longer, and which presents some thirty-five 

 obstacles to be negotiated, has been covered in ten minutes 



