,5 GENERAL GRANT'S ARABIAN STALLIONS, 



tain her national thoroughbred running-horse? Why does Russia take 

 pride in referring to her Orloff trotting-horse as of Arabian origin ? 

 Why does France, through government statistics, show that her famous 

 Percheron draught-horse is moulded from the pliable blood of the 

 Arabian ? 



When men condemn Arabian horses, let them cease to extol Mes- 

 senger, Diomed, Duroc, American Eclipse, Sir Archy, Boston, or Lex- 

 ington, each of which owed its greatness to Arabian blood ; Diomed 

 and Messenger being, as the reader knows, close-bred to the Arabian, 

 and Messenger, which name has been the mouth-piece for our breeders 

 and horsemen for seventy-five years, was three times inbred to the 

 Godolphin Arabian. 



Young men think there has been wonderful improvement in our 

 horses during the past thirty years. I do not think so. When I take 

 up the little horse-shoe nail, but a trifle heavier than an old-fashioned 

 shawl-pin, or examine the shoe, the harness, the sulky, the tracks, the 

 system of training, with other improved advantages towards increased 

 rates of trotting speed, and then look at our inferior coach-horses, and 

 know the difficulty in obtaining even an ordinarily good pair, I must 

 say that our horses have degenerated, while our mechanical ingenuity 

 towards increased speed has augmented. That the number of trotting- 

 horses is greater than a few years ago, is because we have a greater 

 number of horses; and because one hundred are now trained for speed 

 where one was twenty years ago. 



England, Scotland, France, and Russia have each a typical horse, 

 capable of reproducing its type with excellence in any land to which it 

 may be exported. They are the thoroughbred race-horse, the Clyde, 

 and the Percheron draught-horses, and the Orloff trotting-horse. 

 Every one of these types is a thoroughbred in its country, based upon 

 the Arabian; and, exported to any land, will reproduce itself physically 

 and instinctively, which our time-standard bred horses will not do at 

 present. 



What we would term our national horse is of no positive blood, or 

 instinctive value. It cannot and will not reproduce itself in a creditable 

 manner to export as our national horse. Our system of breeding is 

 one of great mongrelization, which, as I have repeatedly written, means 

 uncertainty with degeneracy. 



Our vast territory demands more horses than any other country. 

 Our unlimited grass lands invite and encourage the breeding of horses, 

 whether the owner of the lands be adapted as a breeder or not. Our 



