174 THE HORSE 



straight hind legs, and a slim tail, well set on. The 

 shoulder is usually sloping, but one occasionally sees a 

 thoroughbred with rather straight shoulders, and even 

 the sloping or ''pacing" rump, as we call it in this 

 country, is not uncommon. The thoroughbred is 

 usually slow and stiff-legged at the trot, and he has a 

 peculiar long, slouching, shambling walk. In fact he 

 often trips and stumbles while walking or trotting, but 

 he is usually quick enough to recover himself without 

 actually falling. 



The thoroughbred is of course founded chiefly on 

 the Arabian horse; and in the eighteenth century he 

 closely resembled the Arabian, being a small, compact 

 animal with more graceful lines and more beauty than 

 he now possesses. By careful breeding, by high feed- 

 ing, by much severe training and racing, the thorough- 

 bred was gradually transformed, pulled out and 

 straightened out, as it were, until he became a tall, leggy 

 animal of the greyhound type. In the past one hun- 

 dred years, the average height of the thoroughbred has 

 increased at least four inches — in other words, from 

 a small horse he has become a big horse. 



In the eighteenth century and in the early part of the 

 nineteenth, long-distance running races were very com- 

 mon. The match races in this country that created so 

 much excitement In those days — especially the contests 

 between the North and the South, when the gentlemen 

 of New York State matched their money and their 

 horses with the gentlemen from Virginia, Kentucky, and 

 South Carolina — those famous races that still live in 

 turf history, one of which the celebrated Hiram Wood- 



