THE AMERICAN BLOOD-HORSE. 45 



place ; and, with but few exceptions, the thorough-bred horse is 

 now kept, both in England and this country, for the paramount 

 purpose of money-making, either by the actual winning of his 

 prizes, or by his service in the stud, after his racing career is 

 ended. 



Still, although the animals employed may be generally kept 

 merely for the gratification of cupidity and the excitement of 

 the contest, and thougli racing and race-courses may be subject 

 to abuses by far too many, yet such means are, even now, as 

 tliey were intended lo i)e from the first, the best and only mode 

 of really improving the general stock of any country. As the 

 points of the thorough-bred horse are precisely those which 

 constitute the perfection of a blood-horse in a high form as a 

 stallion for improving the breed of animals, and for getting the 

 best horses from any possible cl-ass of mares, for all possible uses, 

 unless for the very slowest and most ponderous draught, the de- 

 scription of those points which are most generally accepted as 

 accurate is subjoined. 



Purity of blood is an indispensable requisite for the thorough- 

 bred horse. By the term "blood," it is not intended to be un- 

 derstood that there is any real difference between the blood of 

 the thorough-bred horse and that of the half-bred animal, as no 

 one could discriminate between the two by any known process. 

 The terra Is here used in the same sense as "breed," and by 

 purity of blood is meant purity in the breeding of the individual 

 animal under consideration ; that is to say, that the horse 

 which is entirely bred from any one source is pure, or free from 

 any mixture with others, and may be a pure Suffolk Punch, or 

 a pure Clydesdale, or a pure thorough-bred horse. All these 

 terms are, however, comparative, since there is no such animal 



