CHAPTEK II. 



VAKIETIES OF THE HORSE, 



10. — Although there may never have been a period when it 

 was more possible to obtain a horse of any required size or 

 character than it is now, there were far more distinct and definite 

 breeds fifty years ago than there are at the present time. 



The immense facilities that the last half century has provided ■ 

 for cheap and rapid communication, both between different 

 countries, and between different parts of the same country, have 

 lessened or destroyed many distinctions that used to exist in the 

 live and dead stock of most parts of the world ; have removed 

 many a prejudice, have dropped many an inferior race of animals 

 out of existence, and have, upon the whole, led to the survival of 

 the fittest, and the preponderance of the best. What Bakewell's, 

 Leicesters and Elman's Southdowns have being doing amongst 

 sheep, and the shorthorns amongst cattle, the Clydesdale and the 

 Thoroughbred have been doing amongst horses. The old breeds 

 may still bear the same name, but most of them have really given 

 place to a different animal, produced by repeated crosses of 

 superior blood ; or, to use a common expression, they have been 

 " improved off the face of the earth." The old stiff, gummy- 

 legged, short-winded cart horse, is no where to be seen ; the fine, 

 ponderous, slow animals, that used to work the family carriage, 

 with the long hair closely cut from their carty legs, have given 

 place to something very nearly thoroughbred ; and even the "Welsh 

 ponies are now little else than the diminutive descendants of Sir 

 Watkin Wynn's blood sires. The change has proceeded on very 

 different lines in different parts of the world, and generally under 

 circumstances more or less characteristic of the people amongst 

 whom it has taken place. The cool-headed clannish Scotchmen 



