344 THE HORSES OF PREHISTORIC [CH. 



Neapolitan, Turkish, English, and Dutch blood, and the superior 

 Danish horses thus produced had a very high reputation 1 . 



In certain coast districts are found small ponies, which are 

 generally of a grey colour, and resemble Iceland ponies. These 

 animals, which live entirely in the open and in a semi-wild 

 state, are probably in large part descended from the fallow-dun 

 and white horses of the age of Beowulf, their grey colour being 

 due to the cross with southern blood. 



The East Prussian (Fig. 99) are the best horses in Germany, 

 and they "bear somewhat the same relation to other German 

 horses as Irish horses bear to English horses 2 ." The chief centre 

 is the stud of Trakehnen, from which the famous breed derives 

 its name. It was founded in 1732 by Frederick William I, the 

 father of Frederick the Great. Its original stock consisted of 

 1101 animals from the then royal studs, but the importation 

 of some Arabs and many English thoroughbreds has greatly 

 improved the East Prussian breed. The Trakehnen horse has 

 a good temper, great endurance, a fine head, a well-formed 

 neck, a strong back, and he is well ribbed-up. As a rule the 

 depth and slope of his shoulders are not satisfactory, he is 

 inclined to be rather long-legged, and he looks a little too light 

 for his height. 



Wiirtemburg possesses a notable breed of horses, the best 

 of which result from imported Arabs with an admixture in a 

 small degree of the English thoroughbred and the Trakehnen. 

 This breed is the outcome of the royal stud established at 

 Stuttgard 3 in 1817. 



Through the introduction of English thoroughbreds the 

 Bavarian horses have been entirely modified and are chiefly 

 ' Oriental ' in origin. The best specimens are larger than the 

 Arabs and are less troublesome than the true English thorough- 

 breds 4 . 



Switzerland possesses several breeds of heavy horses, ap- 

 parently derived from the old medieval black war-horses, which 

 in their turn were probably descended from the horses of the 

 Burgundians praised by Vegetius. Of these the Laumont breed, 



1 Hayes, op. cit. pp. 524-5. a Hayes, op. cit. pp. 510-1. 



3 Cuyer and Alix, op. cit. p. 626. 4 Cuyer and Alix, op. cit. p. 626. 



