/ 



III] AND HISTORIC TIMES 351 



17 mares. "As might be expected from their breeding, the 

 Orlov Trotters are of no distinctive type, and are divided into 

 heavy and light Trotters. The majority of them indicate the 

 possession of vulgar relations, by their large and hairy fetlocks, 

 fiddle heads and goose rumps. As usual the cart-horse strain 

 comes out in the head, legs, and setting-on of the tail ; and the 

 Eastern blood in the body." 



(2) There is only one heavy Russian breed of draught- 

 horses the Beetewk, called after the river of that name, on 

 which stands the Voronej village of Shukavka. In 1712 Peter 

 the Great was so struck by the good qualities of the horses of 

 that locality that he imported Dutch stallions to improve the 

 breed, and later on it was crossed with the Orlov Trotter. 

 (3) There are many private breeding farms in the steppes of 

 the Don, Volga, Dnieper, and other parts of Little Russia, 

 which supply the Russian army with most of its remounts. 

 These horses have a good proportion of Arab and thoroughbred 

 English blood in them, are essentially saddle-horses, and as they 

 are brought up on the wild steppes are extremely hardy and 

 very enduring. 



(4) The Kalmucks and Kirghis keep many horses in a semi- 

 wild condition. They are coarse-bred animals, being chiefly 

 descended from the ancient horses of the steppes (pp. 131-2), 

 and have been far less improved by imported blood than the 

 horses of Little Russia. The Kalmuck horses are about 15 hands 

 high, and many of them are bought as remounts for the Russian 

 cavalry. They are bred in the district between the rivers Volga 

 and Ural. The Kirghis horses, bred in the steppes north-east 

 of the Caspian, have been. still less influenced by foreign blood; 

 they are ponies rarely exceeding 14*1 hands in height 1 . 



It is thus clear that the more Libyan blood any Russian 

 horse has in its veins, the better it is, and that the nearer 

 it approaches to the original Asiatic-European type, the less 

 valuable is it for the service of man. 



When Caesar invaded Britain he found the Belgic tribes, 

 who occupied the south-eastern portion of the island, em- 

 ploying not only cavalry like the Gauls, but also war-chariots, 

 1 Hayes, op. cit. pp. 551-8. 



